The Pacific Redemption
by FinnOtaku
Summary: There was supposed to be more time. It was just meant to be a mission to find and retrieve, and possibly fight somewhere down the line... But I guess our enemy didn't agree with the proposition. Can we really find, retrieve, AND fight at the same time, as we try to track down the remnants of the Pacific War...? Heh, only one way to find out.
1. Chapter 1: BB-61, sally go!

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: BB-61, sally go!**

* * *

Fog Tunnels.

An ocean phenomena that was widely reported by cargo ships and fishing boats all over the world for the past few years. While the time and place has varied quite considerably since the first sighting, certain recurring things eventually became established as years went by:

The fog would be preceded by a sound like a muffled thunder, after which the fog would begin to emit through the waves like vapor from a kettle. The vaporing diameter would increase little by little, until it has reached a large enough magnitude to cover a fishing boat or even a yacht, given the chance. The pillar of fog would remain there for about five to ten minutes, until it would gradually begin to shrink and disappear altogether.

While these pillars were rather easy to spot and avoid, some smaller ships had taken it upon themselves to delve into this mysterious fog and see what it holds within. So far there had been 6 confirmed cases of a ship entering the fog.

Cases which all concluded with the disappearance of each and every craft, eventually prompting a widespread warning to steer clear of this bizarre phenomena. And for most part, this warning was mostly as easy to say and do, due to one last trait that all occurrences of Fog Tunnels shared. Aside from one, glaring exception.

* * *

Three months ago, a Fog Tunnel appeared in the San Francisco Bay in a middle of the day, marking the first sight of the phenomena outside the open sea. Among the confusion, a group of local fishermen approached the sight out of curiosity, and shot a fishing net through the fog. According to some reports though, despite seeming to fly for a very long distance, the net didn't fly out from the other side of the fog. It was from this claim that this phenomena eventually received its peculiar name; a foggy tunnel to the unknown.

As the rope attached to the net finally stopped unfolding itself from the winch, the fishermen slowly began to reel it back in. But as the winch was slowly pulling the net back, the rope suddenly tightened as it zipped out of the water, now hanging steadily above the water's surface. The net had caught something.

Not expecting this sudden turn of events, the men seemed to be excited as they decided to help the winch to retrieve the rope faster by pulling it with their hands. But as they were, the fog began to tense and the rope suddenly began to be dragged in towards the fog. The men hadn't expected any of this either, but instead of cutting the rope, their excitement prompted them to try and speed away with the net intact. It didn't work.

Luckily the local coast guard arrived soon after and they managed to gather enough nearby ships to tow the boat away from the fog, along with the mysterious haul. And in the end, the net was torn out from the fog, and the pillar slowly began to disperse, eventually fading out from sight.

Once the boats had reached the shore, the net and its contents were finally towed in and pulled on the dry land. But as the men were about to inspect their haul, the local police arrived and soon took the fishermen and their catch into custody. While the fishermen were eventually released, what they had found had been passed forward to an unknown party, and the details of this incident were shrouded in mystery. For a while.

* * *

A few weeks later, a local news station managed to release an interview with some of the fishermen, where they discussed about and - most surprisingly - even showed a video clip of what they had found that day during the incident. Even though the interview was taken down in a matter of minutes, reposts of the clip soon began to emerge all over the Internet. However, the story and the video alone wasn't enough to catch worldwide attention at the time.

The video clip showed what had happened after the Fog Tunnel had already disappeared. After getting back to the shore, the men had managed to get the net on land and attempted to untangle what they had captured. But rather underwhelmingly, they had only caught what looked like a small, empty landing craft, a one that a single grown-up man could've just barely fit to sit on with his legs spread out. Some users took note of the striking resemblance to an old type of landing craft used by the Japanese, but sadly, this remark was not enough to make up for the underwhelming depiction of the haul. The rest of the video was just about the men struggling to untangle the net around the little boat for about a half a minute, until the police sirens began to emanate from the background, seemingly prompting the cameraman to stop recording.

As the reposts of the news story began to be left undisturbed, many began to believe that all the earlier takedowns were just part of a secretive overreaction, and the whole clip was about to fall into obscurity for the lack of saving graces. That is, until a certain comment was made on an imageboard about the withering subject:

"So, I've been meaning to ask, what's the deal with the little guys on that boat thing?"

At first, people didn't think much about that message, assuming that it was just a weird attempt to make a joke on the internet. But eventually more and more people began to come forward, claiming that what they saw in the clip was a small boat full of bobbleheaded humanoids. And as the copies of the interview began to be taken down again along with the threads talking about these paranormal remarks, people started to take these claims seriously. People eventually began to analyze the video again, with some even making 3D models of the so-called little guys as they had been described. And by the time a month had passed since the whole episode in San Francisco, the matter had been covered in mainstream news outlets worldwide, being acknowledged to the point that the original news station was able to republish its original interview without a problem.

But even with all the discussion, the amount of questions was still outweighing the answers surrounding this mystery:

What were those little guys? Where did they come from? Where are they now?

What are the Fog Tunnels? What was dragging the boat's rope that day?

It were to take two more months, before any of these questions were to have an answer.

* * *

-Beep-Beep-

"Hey, you really think this is going to work?"

"Well, to be honest, I do have some doubts about this."

"Yeah, I know, right? This whole thing just sounds so absurd, and I don't think we're the only ones with that notion."

"Hmph, true... If those claims had actually been taken seriously, they would've definitely done more than just give us a permission to search this ship with… This thing."

-Beep-Beep-

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking! I mean, if this works, there's no way even the FBI could cover up what would come next. The whole city… No, the whole _world_ would learn about the-!"

"Although, I kinda hope that this wouldn't work."

"Hm? How come?"

"Well, you heard those little guys, right? If this actually works, then that means everything they've been warning us about could be as equally true."

"Oooh, yeah. That..."

-Beep-Beep-

"But... Even if this doesn't work, we would still need to look into this whole 'little guys' thing."

"Yeah, that _has_ been quite a mystery to be honest. I mean, just what on earth could they be? One would think they're aliens or something, but... What kind of an alien would pop out from the sea like that?"

"I've always thought of them as fairies, to be honest."

"Heh, at least that's what they've all been keen to assert lately... Hang on, come to think of it, why _is_ that? Weren't they as confused as us when we first met them?"

"...Oh. Now that you mentioned it, I think I might be responsible for that."

"Huh?"

"You see, it just looked so sad when they had such an identity crisis back then, so I just blurted out my impression of them when I happened to pass them one day."

"...I have several questions about your childhood-related literature."

-Beep-Beep-

"And speaking of several questions, should you be like pressing something on this thing?"

"H-Hey, hey, watch it! Careful there... And no, I'm pretty sure they just said to point this everywhere until it starts to-"

-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-

"...Do this?"

"Yes... Oh god."

The two strangers had walked their way up to the deck, pointing their tablet-like device towards the bow of the ship. Oddly enough though, while the device did seem to react to something, the only ones present on the deck were just the two of them.

"Well, umm... Assuming that beeping implies what those little guys claimed, I guess this would be one place to be if you want to have some peace of mind or-"

"Just hold this for me, okay..."

The man passed the device over to his sister, and began to walk towards the empty bow, digging his pockets as he went along. As he reached the bow, he took out a hand-sized green capsule, which began to glow with a faint tint.

After walking around the bow, keeping an eye on the capsule as he did, he eventually stopped by the spot where it seemed to glow the brightest. He then moved the capsule a bit more around him, eventually raising his hand and swinging it down in front of him.

But instead of hitting it on his thigh, the capsule suddenly got stuck in midair, beginning to glow even brighter. The man instinctively let go of the thing, but instead of falling down, the capsule began to sway back and forth in the air.

After a while, the light began to spread beyond the capsule on the air around it, slowly revealing faint outlines of a human figure. However, it seemed to be wriggling in pain, attempting to remove the strange capsule from what now appeared to be the figure's left shoulder. And as the light kept spreading, the figure gradually began to emit voice, though at that point, it only served to establish the amount of its pain even further.

Feeling a bit guilty, but mostly startled, the two strangers could only watch as the blurry outlines slowly began to sharpen, with the figure slowly gaining color and even emanating a shadow on the deck.

And after a wild trip on the guilt train, the glowing stopped...

She was there.

* * *

The Port of Los Angeles, two weeks ago. The museum ship Iowa vanished without a trace.

Despite their attempts, the officials couldn't explain the disappearance by claiming that the ship had to be moved for emergency reparations, as the claims were completely dismissed by the public with countless video clips taken from the day of the disappearance.

All of the clips showed the same thing: The ship begins to emit a mysterious glow, getting brighter and brighter, until the ship suddenly begins to fade away like dust in the wind. Many news outlets noted that some of the clips emerged on the social media in a matter of minutes from the complete evaporation, far earlier before the local police had managed to put forward any kind of statements about the incident. But despite all this, the officials refused to come forward to corroborate their story, nor were they willing to comment on the incident any further.

And as things were heating up in the US over this debacle, a small ship, little bigger than a yacht, was slowly approaching the Marshall Islands and its infamous nuclear test site of Operation Crossroads.

* * *

After the Second World War, ships from all sides began to lose their purpose, and some of them eventually faded away from the face of the earth one way or another. And on a certain atoll, some of these ships left the world in the name of science by the hands of two nuclear bombs.

Some of the partaking vessels were sunk by the blasts, some of them managed to hold on for a little longer, but in the end, every one of them vanished from sight of the deep blue ocean waves.

Although, one ship in particular never truly left the sight, and had remained like that to this day.

Towed away from the initial bombing site, a German cruiser Prinz Eugen eventually toppled over in shallow waters, ending up with her stern just merely peeking out above the waves by the small island of Enubuj. That's how she was left back then, and that's how she was on the day when a small ship, little bigger than a yacht, was slowly approaching her.

* * *

"Hey, you really think this is going to work?"

"Well, to be honest, I do have some doubts about this."

"Yeah, I know, right? I understand when we did this in Los Angeles on a floating, somewhat functional ship, but a sunken one like that... I just wouldn't bet on it."

"Why not? The little guys have been right so far, so I'm a bit more confident about this. And isn't it a pretty safe assumption that a ship's 'soul' would remain lingering around the wreckage after it has sank?"

"Uuh, I guess... But what about the ships that were scrapped afterwards and such?"

"You know, I actually asked them once out of curiosity, and oddly enough none of them seemed to have an answer."

"W-Wait, really? There are actually things that the little guys don't know about?"

"Well, it's not like they're walking dictionaries, you know? They're just... Little guys."

"Huh, go figure... Hey, so, what do you think about her?"

"Her? Well, I think that looks uncomfortable, being face down in the-"

"Wait, no, not _her_! I mean... You know..."

"Hm...? Oh, Iowa? What about her?"

"Well, you know, I just... We've been riding this boat with her for two weeks, and I just can't see her as some battle hardened naval veteran."

"...I think I see where you're coming from, but can you honestly blame her for being like that? She did seem quite stressed about all the responsibility that was pushed onto her right off the bat, so I'd say it's just good for her to get her mind of these kind of things and get accustomed to her new body while she has the chance."

"Yeah, but... Can she actually put up a fight with a laid-back attitude like that? Do we really have to rely on her if things actually get bad?"

"I'm just little out of touch, jeez."

"Eeek!" The girl suddenly flinched, as an oddly clothed blondie had sneaked up on the two.

"Besides, you know I haven't even had a _chance_ to put up a fight yet, Able..." Iowa pouted, as she was savouring a small bag of chips.

"B-But, you've been just lazing around this whole trip! How can you expect anyone to take you seriously like this?" the girl called Able moaned, still taken aback that she hadn't heard the battleship sneaking up on them.

"Wha-?! N-No, that's not true, Baker here has taught me a lot about history and stuff after all!" Iowa blurted, pointing towards the man, seemingly putting a lot of confidence behind her claim.

"Hm, really?" the man called Baker noted. "I'd say your personal research on chips and Netflix have been way more successful than what we've done."

The blondie's confidence seemed to take a bit of a blow.

"Ah. Well, I think it's also important for someone like me to learn about the more recent innovations of this generation like Netflix, and such..."

"And the chips?"

"I've just tried to expand my knowledge about the modern delicacies."

A _modern_ delicacy? Able thought to herself, reminiscing the times she ate them when she was even younger.

"Ahem, anyhow! The point is that I haven't been just lazing around, you hear?!" Iowa concluded, with her face slightly red with embarrassment,

And it was then that Baker noticed a file in the blondie's hand.

"Hm, what's that?"

While still a bit flustered, Iowa turned her attention to the file. And after a while, she remembered what she was about to tell the two when she was walking up to them.

"Ah, yes! Look, look at this!" Iowa said, as she passed the file to Baker. "It took them awhile, but the little guys finally made it work!"

"Made it work...?" Able mumbled as she glanced over the opened file with Baker. After glancing through the first couple of pages, they finally realized what it was about. "Oh, you mean they finally made that rigging thing work?"

"Yes, now I can finally take my guns with me to these wide open seas. And then, just maybe, I might even be able to..." Iowa smirked as she turned her gaze on Able. "Put up a fight."

Able was about to say something back, but she didn't seem to be able to come up with anything clever in return, eventually ending up lowering her hand and closing her mouth in embarrassment.

"...Ah, is that her?!" Iowa suddenly exclaimed, running up to the railing when she noticed the stern sticking out from the sea. "Is that the Big Seven Nagato?!"

"Hm? Oh, no, that's not her. That's, uuuh..." Baker took out a notebook and quickly scrolled it through to check out the name he had written down. "Ah, Prints Oigen, a German cruiser. We're about to check whether or not we can 'bring her to life' like we did with you back in LA."

"Oh, yeah, you mentioned something along those lines earlier... I forgot..." Iowa slumped on the deck while hanging her hands overboard.

"Ah. B-But no worries, once we're done here, we'll go straight to the Bikini Atoll. And if this works, it means we may be able to meet Nagato as well", Baker reassured, somewhat relieving the battleship's poutiness.

"Hmm, okay then... So, what's your plan? Are you just gonna go there and stick that... Thing in her like you did with me?"

Seeing the look on Iowa's face, Baker wondered how he should phrase his answer, but he eventually decided to just be honest with her.

"Well, basically yes", Baker said as he pulled out another capsule from his pocket, making Iowa flinch a bit out of discomfort. "But first we need to prepare our equipment so we can find out where Prints Oigen is."

It was from the perplexed and slightly amused looks of the two girls that made Baker take note of his choice of words.

"...Soul. Where Prints Oigen's _soul_ is. We don't know whether it's above the water or below the water, so we need to prepare a miniature submarine if we want to make a proper search around that ship and all."

Strangely, one of the looks hadn't changed even after the clarification.

"W-What?" Baker asked Iowa.

"Uuhm, why do you make it sound so complicated? Why not just go up to her and be done with it?"

"...But, I just said that we don't know where she... Sorry, her _soul_ is. I think we can save much more time w-"

"Wait, you mean that's not her then? And isn't that kind of dangerous?" Iowa asked as she pointed towards the wreckage.

Put even though she seemed to point at something in particular, the two were unable to spot what she was talking about, even after moving next to her pointing hand and looking along it towards the wreckage.

"...Who are you talking about?" Able asked, now all of the three sharing a perplexed look on their faces. The battleship however, managed to take her expression one step further.

"What do you mean who am I-?! There, that girl, on the propeller! That spacing out one!"

...Finally realizing what she meant, the two felt rather confounded for not considering the possibility of someone like her seeing another one like her.

"Or, to save time _and_ money, we could just do this", Baker said as he took Iowa's right hand, brought it closer to him and placed the strange capsule on her hand.

But as Iowa realized what she was holding, she let out a sharp squeal and accidentally sent the capsule flying up in the air. Luckily, Able managed to react fast enough to catch the capsule before it flew overboard.

"Bro, are you serious?! Do you really think she even wants to touch this thing?" Able exclaimed, as she pushed herself off the railing with the capsule in her hand.

"What? I think she wants to get to the Bikini Atoll as soon as possible, so this would be the fastest way to do it. Besides, the little guys already told her that even if she'd try, these capsules wouldn't work on her anymore. These won't react to those who have been already... 'brought back', so to speak."

"...W-Wait, really?" Iowa asked, with a confounded expression of a one who was about to concur with Able.

In turn, Baker looked at her with a confounded expression of a one who was physically present when the fairies briefed the battleship about the subject.

"Oh, now that you mention it, they _did_ say something like that awhile back. I... kinda forgot about it when it made me remember that LA thing. Which I then tried to forget again", Iowa attempted to brush off the mishap by letting out a series of lighthearted laughs.

Brief awkwardness ensued.

"...Wait, so, then we _could_ just have you go over there and be done with this, since you don't have anything to fear, right?" Able pointed out.

While Iowa first attempted to come up with something for her defence, the more she thought about it, the more she began to realize that she really did have nothing to worry about. Even though the progression of this realization was reflected on her face, Baker decided to speed things up a bit more.

"The sooner we're done here, the sooner we can move out."

The discomfort was now completely overthrown by the excitement, as Iowa traded her bag of chips with Able in exchange of the capsule, and jumped overboard. But instead of sinking beneath the waves like one usually would, her fall was halted on the water's surface like it was ground, yet making quite a grand splash. And once she had regained her posture, Iowa began her dash towards the wreckage, sliding similarly how one would skate on ice.

"BB-61, heading out!"

"...Huh. That was easy", Able said, checking the bag of chips and scooped some of its contents in her hand. "...Oh yeah, that fuzzing about Nagato reminded me, the little guys told me that we're going to start this whole resurrection thing with her once we reach the Bikini Atoll. Why is that, shouldn't we start with the US ships?"

"Oh yeah, I never mentioned about that, did I? Well, while the potato chips and video streaming were the first things she found interesting, she took some interest in the WWII weaponry when I was going on about them during one of my... Lectures, I guess...?"

The disbelief was strong on Able's face as she stared her brother.

"...Okay, we've mostly just scrolled through some random wiki articles. But anyway, at some point in our searches we ended up discussing about this group of ships called Big Seven and their 'off-limits' weaponry, and then I mentioned that she'll eventually meet one of those ships once we reach the Atoll."

"Wait, wait, hang on, are you suggesting that...?"

"Yes, she then went and personally requested that Nagato would be one of the souls to be brought back during our first patch on the Atoll. You might've already heard this, but the little guys just barely managed to stick to the deadline with their capsule production for this day."

"Oh yeah, I heard they finished up with the last one just yesterday. Five in total, wasn't it?"

"Six, actually."

"Huh, so about three per week then... So, did Iowa try to explain that request or...?"

"Well, she _did_ try to reason her request by explaining that we shouldn't make the few Japanese ships on the Atoll feel threatened by having a fleet of US ships greet them after so long, but..."

"She just wants to test the guns."

"Yeah, I think that's a pretty major factor with her request... Although, if I were Nagato, I'd probably appreciate such a sentiment, so I don't think it's just Iowa being selfish."

Suddenly, a walkie-talkie began to let out some noise on Baker's belt. As he picked it up, he looked up to the wreckage and saw Iowa waving at him with one hand, while holding her ear with the other. Baker recognized the latter gesture, and answered to his radio accordingly.

"Yes, Iowa?"

" _Well, I was just wondering, can you give me another one of those things? I... kinda missed with that other one._ "

It was then when he realized that she was still standing next to the wreckage, not on it or anywhere near the propeller she fuzzed so much about earlier.

"Uuh, missed? What do you mean missed?"

" _It wasn't my fault, really. My aim was perfect, but the thing just slipped right through her._ "

"Wait, you _threw_ the capsule?! You're supposed hold it and press the button on top of it to use it!"

" _...Oooh, so_ that's _what that bump was for._ "

Despite the reasonably long distance, Iowa seemed to spot the look on Baker's face.

" _Ah, I-I mean... Sorry, my bad..._ "

Baker let out a long sigh, before he continued.

"Just stay there for now, we'll come and bring you another one."

" _Ooh, on that little submarine?_ "

"No, on a little water scooter. It takes way less fuel and we can't even ride that sub."

This made Baker remember something as he cast the radio aside.

"Oh yeah, someone needs to go and tell the little guys that we don't need that sub yet. _And_ that we have to change our plans for the first patch."

"Huh", Able sounded, "why not just go pick up the one she just-?"

"Threw away? If her physical tests are of any indication, that's gotta be miles away by now, and we're still going to be stuck on that atoll for weeks either way."

After he had taken out another capsule from his backpack and the water scooter keys from his pocket, he turned his attention to his sister.

"So, Able, which job do you wanna-?"

"Scooter!" Able grabbed the capsule and keys from his brother's hand, and ran towards a nearby set of ladders with quite an enthusiasm.

"...Got it", Baker muttered, as he turned and took out his walkie-talkie again. "Standby Iowa, Able will bring you another one. And please, climb aboard and use it properly this time."

" _I don't think climbing will be necessary now._ "

Little confused by the statement, Baker took another glance at Iowa, and noticed that she was facing towards the wreckage again. However, she was not looking towards the propeller, but much, much lower in front of her.

" _I think my throw had captured her attention._ "

"...I see. Well, you know what to do", Baker said, putting the walkie-talkie back on his belt and began to make his way inside the yacht.

* * *

People come. People dive. People leave. That's how it had played out for years.

At first, Prinz Eugen had tried to approach them, talk to them, touch them, but alas, her efforts had been for naught every single time. And eventually, she just stopped trying, and merely began to follow people around with the slight glimmer of hope that someone would eventually notice her. But in the end, even this smallest glimmer faded away, and what remained was the hope that something would come and end her solitude in this mute, empty realm...

So it's no wonder that she realized that something was very, very different this time.

"(What is this person doing?)", Prinz Eugen thought to herself in confusion as she stood in front of the blurry figure, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. The figure waved its hands and moved its mouth, as if it was talking to someone. But despite looking around her multiple times, Eugen couldn't find any other figures around for this scene to make any sense to her.

"...Does she see me?" Eugen suddenly muttered to herself. A mutter she made without thinking, as she quickly reacted to it with a bit of a shock. "(W-Wait, no no no no! Don't get your hopes up Eugen, this has to be a coincidence! There's no way that someone would come up to me like this and just...)"

But as she tried to deny the implications of the situation, Eugen failed to notice that the figure seemed to have noticed her slip of tongue. And as the German cruiser glanced at the figure again, she finally realized that it had brought its face right up to hers, forming the following words with its lips:

I can see you just fine.

And it was then that Eugen felt something from the deep reaches of her soul, quickly making its way towards the surface. While Eugen unconsciously tried to push it down, her long forgotten glimmer of hope eventually reached the surface, though the German cruiser's mind was occupied with other matters for her to properly address this reemergence.

"W-Wait, what? How can she...? W-What?" Eugen said in confusion, having trouble to think straight after decades of being ignored.

It was then when she glanced back towards the figure and realized that another one was closing in on them. And this was also when she finally realized something else about this strange figure that she had been standing in front of her: It wasn't swimming on water, it wasn't on a boat on water, it was _standing_ on water. Just like her.

While she still tried to comprehend all of this, the two figures were conversing with each other. And eventually, the one who was sitting on some kind of a vessel handed the standing one something. Eugen noticed that the shape was quite similar to the thing that had caught her attention earlier, but wasn't quite certain what it was and why the figures had another one.

The standing figure closed on her again with the strange thing in its hand. The figure raised the hand, and as the figure's face was close to hers again, Eugen could make out what the figure was saying by reading its lips.

"I'm... Sorry?"

The hand swung down, but instead of it going through her like many hands before, she suddenly felt a sharp pain on her left shoulder, one that your average human might've described as something drilling through it.

Even though this was something she had never felt before, Prinz Eugen began to scream in pain and began to desperately reach for the source of this sudden agonizing feeling, but she couldn't touch the blurry thing that was now seemingly stuck on her shoulder. In her frenzy she eventually noticed the light that was emanating from this sharp pain, and that the light was rapidly spreading across the rest of her body along with the pain.

As the pain grew stronger, she suddenly began to hear something else beyond her own screams.

"-his c- **N** 't b- ri **G** -t! -bl **E** , w- ha-e t **O** st-p thi-!"

"no, th-s is **J** ust li-e you w **H** -n we d-d th **I** s in l **A**! **W** e j- **S** t have to bar- with th **I** s for n- **W**!"

As the sounds kept getting louder each time they bounded back up, Eugen began to hold her ears to muffle out these sounds. With little to no success.

The pain had eventually consumed her entire body, and not knowing what do, Eugen's body began spasm violently, trying to instinctively find the pose with least amount of pain. But despite the efforts, the pain kept growing stronger and stronger, and the sounds kept getting louder and louder. But just as Eugen thought she couldn't take this pain any longer...

It stopped.

She was there.

* * *

Iowa and Able watched in slight guilt, as the twintail haired girl toppled over, ending up kneeling on the surface of the water while gasping heavily. The capsule that was stuck on her shoulder fell off, but instead of sinking, it remained floating on the surface of the water.

Even though the sight of kneeling on water was a bit odd through Able's eyes, Iowa didn't seem to think as much about it, as she eventually dared to approach the girl. She knelt down and grabbed the girl's shoulder.

"Hey, you okay there?"

The gasping stopped, and the girl suddenly raised her head with an expression of fear and confusion. The girl quickly stood up and tried to dash away backwards from the blondie, but the sudden movement just ended up with her tripping over and hitting her head on the wreckage.

"Owgh!" the girl wailed, ending up kneeling on the water's surface again while holding the back of her head.

"...Yeaaah, that is kinda how things went with you as well, wasn't it?" Able noted while leaning on the scooter.

"W-Well, I don't think it was _that_ bad", Iowa replied. "I was just a bit startled since I had never felt something touch me before."

"And you fell backwards and hit your head on a railing."

Iowa was about to say something, but couldn't think of a way to counter this argument.

"...Okay, maybe it was a _little_ bit like that."

A sound of a splash distracted the two from each other, when the German cruiser was about to get back up. But as they were about to approach her, the girl stopped and turned her attention back on them, and began to stare at them with a fierce gaze.

"Hey, hey, no need to look so leery there", Iowa tried to calm the girl down. "Come on, the pain is gone, right?"

The girl didn't seem to think much about it at first, but as she kept staring at the two, she slowly began to notice that the claim was oddly ringing true. She first moved around her fingers, then her hand, and she eventually stood back up and began to move around her body to find any pose that would've made her feel that excruciating pain again. She couldn't find any.

"W-Wha-? But... Where did it go?" the girl eventually muttered, not knowing whether she should be afraid or overjoyed about this. As she was seemingly calming down a little, Iowa attempted to approach her again, but the twintail haired girl turned her attention back to the two, backing up a bit slower this time.

"W-What did you do to me?! Who are you people?! Why can you see me?!"

But as the two were thinking of things to say to make her calm down, they realized a bit of a problem with this situation. She was a German, they were Americans. Telling that much to a girl that might still have the mentality from the war could make it harder for them to convince her to tag along.

"Hey, how should we explain this to her?" Iowa whispered to Able.

"W-Well, we should try and gain her trust somehow", Able whispered back. "Let's try chatting with her or something, okay?"

With a loose consensus, Iowa turned her attention back to the twintailed girl, making the girl tense again.

Let's see, she was a, uuh... a _nut-see_ ship or something, Iowa thought to herself. How was it that they greeted each other again back then...?

"Ahem... Prints Oigen! Sick hale!"

"...Huh?" Eugen replied, augmenting her distressed look with a taint of confusion.

Able quickly accelerated and rammed the scooter on Iowa's legs.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"We can't say that! We can't let her think that we're here in the behalf of the Nazi Germany either!" Able whispered.

"Then what _can_ we say to her?"

"Let's just start with a normal introduction, and build up from there. Here, let me show you."

Able moved a bit forward with her scooter, but not enough that the German cruiser would've been able to kick it away. Which she was seemingly preparing to do.

"Ahem. Nice to meet you, my name is Able Marsh. I'm a scientist of sorts."

But before she could continue, the girl's already distressed look was augmented even further with a slight sprinkle of discomfort. At first, Able wasn't sure what triggered this kind of a reaction, until...

"(Oh. Oh god)", Able thought to herself, burying her face in her hands. She's not sure why she hadn't realized it until now, but this might've been even worse thing to say to this girl than the Nazi salute.

"...Hm? Come to think of it", Iowa suddenly said, with a tone of voice that implied she had just realized the same thing, "didn't one of the bombs that was used on that atoll have the same name as y-"

"Yes. Yes it did. I... kinda just realized it too."

With both attempts to make good impressions of themselves failed, they were struggling to come up with a comeback before the girl would just try to make a run for it. But lucky for them, it was the German cruiser herself that decided to break this awkward ice.

"Hey... I'm not sure what's going on here, but... Do I have to go back there?"

Taken slightly aback by this odd question, Able was unable to utter but one thing.

"W-What do you mean?"

"Well, I-I'm getting all these weird ideas of what might happen next, but I really want to know if any of them ends up back to that place. M-My hopes are building up really high right now, and I don't know if I can handle it if I end up back there like this", Eugen tried to keep herself as composed as possible, but her intense uncertainty was gradually manifesting itself through her teary, dripping eyes. "Just... Just tell me, please..."

Unable to grasp what she was talking about, Able could only watch as the girl tried her best to suppress her flowing tears, falling back on her knees as she did.

Eventually, just when Able was about to wonder whether they need to force the girl to come along, Iowa began to approach her once again. But despite the girl tensing up and leering at her in return, the blondie wasn't stopping this time. She eventually was standing right in front of her, and with nowhere to back up, the girl could only watch as the blondie knelt down, and grabbed her shoulder again. Not knowing what was going to happen next, the girl was about to panic and punch her off, until...

"To tell you the truth, that's pretty much what I thought as well. When I had to go through all of this."

"...Huh?"

"What did they do to me? Why did they do it to me? Will I have to go back? Those were the kind of things I had to struggle with by myself for the first few days. Simply put, it was just pure agony."

"Huh? By yourself? B-But why?"

"...Heh, why? Look at me, do I look like someone who could just talk about their insecurities just like that...? Especially when you are supposed to represent one of the oldest battleships in the United States."

...The declaration was clear, but for some reason, Eugen couldn't find any reason to feel resentment towards someone who's supposedly from the enemy side.

"...How did you deal with it?"

Thinking about the turn of events that eventually took all that agony off her shoulders, she took a brief glance towards Able and the scooter, and gave herself a small grin before turning her attention back to the twintailed girl.

"Well, I eventually got it out of my system, with help from some really, really strange people."

Mesmerized by the battleship's change of behavior after two weeks of lazyness, it took Able a while to realize what Iowa had just said.

"...Hey, wait a minute-!"

"So, I don't want you to go through the same torment I had to, so I'll say this right now: No, you aren't going back to there. And you haven't been brought here for nothing either, you... No, we _both_ have been brought here for a reason. We still have a purpose to fulfill."

Even though saying that she won't go back to her solitude seemed to have pushed some weight off her shoulders, the last part seemed to push off the rest, as she slumped straight on Iowa's chest.

"Huh? H-Hey, are you feeling alright? Is your head still hurting or-?"

"D-Do you... Do you mind if I... Stay like this for a while?" the muffled voice asked, with a small taint of weep.

"...No. Not all", Iowa said, as she wrapped her arms around the German girl.

A moment passed.

...

...

Another moment passed.

...

...

And by the third time Able's feeling of admiration had been reduced enough that she was rational enough to think that they should really keep moving on with this ordeal. But before Able had the guts to actually interrupt this moment...

 **BUZZZZZZZZ!**

" _Able. Do you hear me, Able? How did it go, what's happening over there?_ "

The radio broke through the silence, and - out of surprise - the two shipgirls quickly let go of each other and stood back up with flustered looks on their faces.

"...Well, the first phase worked out just fine, we'll be coming on board after the second phase... And thanks."

With a slight smug grin on her face for being able to pass the blame, Able put away the walkie-talkie and approached the two shipgirls. The speech seemed to have improved the German girl's mood considerably, as the signs of anxiety were completely washed away by a relieved, sparkling smile.

"...Oh yeah, I don't think I properly introduced myself yet", Iowa suddenly realized, as she looked at the German wiping away the tear marks off her cheeks. "I'm the name ship of Iowa-class battleships from the US, Iowa. You must be Prints Oigen, right?"

"Yes... Hehe, so you _did_ try to spell my name earlier", Eugen said, as she finished with her wiping, put on a confident smile, and raised her hand for a salute. "Prinz Eugen, the third cruiser of the _Admiral-Hipper-Klasse_ from _Kriegsmarine_! Now, I may have no idea what's going on yet, but I'll try my best to... Hm?"

Eugen noticed the weird hand motions and the weird expression that the girl on the weird vessel was making while looking at her.

"Uuhm, w-what is it?"

"P-Put your hand down! That is _not_ an okay thing to do these days!" Able half-whispered, receiving a perplexed look from Eugen.

"Oooh", Iowa said as she recognized the pose, " _that's_ what I forgot to do when I tried to greet her earlier. You know, when they used to raise their hands like this and say Sick..."

"Weeeee'll need to go through a few things about that with you two later", Able interrupted, prompting both of the girls to lower their hands.

But as she had managed to make the twintailed girl to put her hand down, it reminded Able again about the reason why the girl had put it up in the first place.

"Oh, right, maybe we should clarify a few things before we move on. You probably took a note of it earlier, but Iowa here _is_ an American ship, and I am American as well, but... T-Things are a bit different from when you were in Europe, you see, and the navy you were assigned to back then is... Well, kinda not there anymore... And, the sides that you and her were on then are not around anymore either, but..."

"No, I understand", Eugen said with a bit of a wistful smile. "I've... Had some time to think about why I had to end up all the way out here like this", Eugen turned around and pointed at the wreckage, "and I had kind of accepted the thought that... It wasn't for the best of reasons..."

After a moment of silence, Eugen put on a bit more determined look on her face.

"But, even if our countries used to be against each other, you people don't really seem like bad guys, so... I-If I'm worthy of your trust, I'll try my best to help you in any way I can... Whatever it is."

"Hm, that's the spirit", Iowa gave an approving grin, and she lift her hand and held it in front of the German girl. "Now, even I don't really know what's going to lie ahead of us, but I'll be counting on you to see it through, Prints Oigen."

"Ah, yes..." Eugen said meekly, as she reached out to Iowa's hand. But as she eventually grasped it, she finally began to realize what this moment implied:

Her time is not up...

These are the people she will be working with, who will be counting on her.

She still has a purpose to fulfill!

"Yes! I look forward to it, _Fräulein_ Iowa!"

"Fr-Frow-line?" Iowa sounded, as the enthusiastic handshaking had caught her a bit off-guard. But as the shaking was still going, the wreckage suddenly began to emit a light glow.

"...Well, I think it's time for the phase two", Able noted, Iowa nodding in with an agreeing look.

A bit confused, Eugen turned around to see what had caught the other two's attention.

And now she was even more confused.

"Wha-? What's happening? What's happening to _me_?!" Eugen yelled, as the wreckage was rapidly getting brighter and brighter, to the point you could barely make out any shapes.

"You've lived on it. You've fought on it... You've endured here on it", Iowa said, making Eugen turn her attention back to the blondie. "It's simply something you can't just leave behind, isn't it? But how can you take something this big with you? ...Heh, you can't. Not in this size anyway."

Suddenly, the glow from the wreckage began to fade away, but so did the wreckage itself. At first, quite understandably, Eugen could only gasp as part of her was seemingly fading away like dust in the wind. But before she had a chance to react properly, she began to notice that these dust particles began to circle around her, with the circle of dust getting brighter and brighter as the wreckage kept disappearing in front of her.

But as the wreckage had vanished to the point that it was gone from above the waves, the three girls began to notice that the water was beginning to flow towards the spot where ship was disappearing, to fill the empty space that used to be the wreckage.

"Uuuhm... Maaaybe we should back up a bit", Able said, turning the scooter around.

"Yeah, that might be for the best", Iowa agreed, when she happened to notice the used capsule still floating next to them. She swiftly scoped it up, and was about to turn and dash away.

"Ah, wait!" Eugen suddenly exclaimed. "I-I don't know how to move on water, I've never done this before."

"Wait, are you seriou-?" Iowa was about to ask, but as the current was getting a bit stronger, she just decided to show how. "Okay, uuh, first imagine that you're on ice skates. You push your right leg like this, and then-"

"Uum, what are ice skates?"

"Oh, right, you wouldn't- Uuh, let's see, they-"

But as the current was getting even stronger, Iowa decided to postpone her lecture.

"Thiiis is actually getting pretty dangerous so I'll just show you later!"

"Uwah!" Eugen sounded, as the battleship grabbed her hand and the two dashed away from the wreckage. Or what was left of it.

As the three of them had dashed for a safe distance, the glow from the wreck was beginning to fade away, as the circle around Eugen was about to glow as bright as the ship when the whole spectacle started.

And suddenly, as the ship had disappeared altogether, the light around the German girl grew even stronger, to the point that it blinded all three of the girls.

"AAH!"

But as the light faded and their eyes began to gradually function again, a sound of clanking began to emanate from the twintailed girl.

"And with this..." Iowa started. "The tale of Prints Oigen... Will start ane-W-Wait, what?"

The light had faded. The vision was clear. But the image before them was nothing like any of the three had imagined. The rigging was full of rust, covered in seaweed, some turrets were missing, and the hole that made her topple over stood out clear as day.

"Uuuuhm... I-Is this how this is _supposed_ to look like?" Eugen asked, first looking at Iowa, until the blondie directed her own and - consequently - the German girl's gaze towards the girl on the scooter.

"Oh, w-well", Able started, trying to think of something positive to say, "when we really think about it, the ship _was_ damaged by two atomic bombs _and_ it has mostly been sitting under the water for decades, so it may not necessarily come as a surprise that the rigging may not look as good as new... Oh, hang on. Now that I think about it, are they still radioactive from back then?"

While Able was in a bit of a panic with her realization, Eugen inspected the odd pistol kind of rigging that had appeared in her right hand. She first checked whether the trigger on it actually does anything... The trigger was completely jammed. She then tried whether the miniature turret on it would move around... The turret was completely jammed as well. She then tried whether the turret's pipes would move a-

 **SNAP!**

 _Splash..._

The sound brought the other two's attention back to the twintailed girl, who slowly raised her head to meet the two's gaze. And after a while, the German's expression remained the same, but her eyes slowly began to well with water.

"Ah, n-no need to worry about this! W-We can easily fix this, you can still help us out just fine!" Iowa panicked, not wanting to have the girl think that she would be returning to her isolation for this.

"Yeah, that's right, we have really, _really_ good mechanics on our ship!" Able concurred.

"R-Really?" Eugen asked with a faint voice. The other two nodded furiously. The German girl then proceeded to snort a bit, and wipe her eyes with her left hand.

"Well then", Able said as she drove herself in front of Eugen, "grab onto that bump, I'll lead you to the ship."

"Okay..." Eugen said, and the three slowly made their way to their yacht.

* * *

Meanwhile, a couple of miles away, the capsule Iowa had thrown away was floating and bouncing along with the ever moving waves. For a while, it seemed like it would've just floated away, landed on a nearby island, possibly made it to the headlines of a local newspaper, but...

 _BOOM!_

A sound like muffled thunder echoed throughout the area, prompting the nearby seagulls to fly off in surprise. And after a while, the neutral tint of green on the capsule suddenly began to turn darker and darker. As it did, a small trail of fog began to emanate under the capsule, and the amount kept growing along with the darkening of the capsule's tint.

But rather unusually, the Fog Tunnel stopped growing right after it had merely concealed the capsule in its fog. And it didn't even take a minute until the fog began fade away, and had disappeared altogether.

Along with the capsule.

* * *

EDIT#1 (20/8/2018):

Hello, I've decided to rewrite some of the chapters of this fic, and possibly write a new chapter for it as well. I had been away from KanColle as a whole for a while now, but after the game's HTML5 update, I feel like now would be a good time to get back to it.

Chapter 1 Afterword: (6/6/2016)

Well, I'm back with more content, but not for the story that most of you have been probably hoping for.

KanColle has been taking my focus from Touhou quite a lot lately, and I've had some stories spinning around in my head, but wasn't sure which one to push out on paper. But I feel like the recent addition of Iowa, the American battleship in the game was the final piece that was missing from the kind of a story I've been hoping to write about this series.

I have a pretty good idea of how the story will go for the next few chapters, so I guess you can expect those for these upcoming weeks. And maybe, I'll someday release another chapter for Touhou Yousai as well.

Cheers.


	2. Chapter 2: Prinz Briefing

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Prinz Briefing**

* * *

"How could she just _throw_ it away?! Does she have _any_ idea how much trial and error we had to endure just to get this far in development?!"

"Well, you haven't really told her a thing about how all this works, so probably not..." Baker replied.

"But I thought it went without saying, otherwise we could've just easily brought back every bloody relic ship in California... Which we _would've_ done next, if those jerks hadn't forced us to carry on this venture a two week trip away like this. With barely _any_ resources, dammit!"

"We can't help it, that's just how these things work, I bet none of the bigwigs were expecting that LA thing to actually work. They probably just wanted us out of sight to collect their thoughts about it all."

"Uuugh... The next time I see them, I'm gonna give them a piece of my mind! ...Somehow!"

Suddenly, an announcement echoed throughout the arsenal.

" _Miss Able and Iowa have returned with who we assume to be Prinz Eugen. Mister Baker, could you please go and verify this girl's identity before letting her proceed beyond the dock?_ "

The one who had been complaining about the loss of the capsule gave a long sigh, and pointed at one of the odd tabloid like devices lying on a nearby table.

"You heard her, go check and see whether there are any anomalies with that girl's body. Prinz's soul used to reside on a rundown vessel after all."

"Got it", Baker said as he went and took one of the devices and went for a giant door.

"And tell that blondie to come and meet me this instant!"

"Y-Yes", Baker mumbled, as he closed the door behind him. He then slowly began to make his way towards the ship's indoor dock. "Whew... She's quite handful for a little guy."

* * *

"Watch your step", Able said, as she was leading Eugen on the dock. The German girl seemed to had been mesmerized by the peculiar structure built within the boat.

"Ah, _d-danke_ ", the twintailed girl said, as she managed tear her gaze away from the ceiling and hopped on the dock.

"Alright girls, you know what to do!" Iowa shouted, as she hopped out of the water as well.

"...Huh, 'girls'?" Eugen said with a bit of confusion, looking around the dock, but unable to spot any other people beside the three of them.

But after a while, she began to hear something by the area that kept her rigging in place, prompting her to look down to her left. What she saw was two bobbleheaded creatures, fiddling around the part that was connected to her waist.

"Uwah!" Eugen wailed as she jumped out of surprise, making the rigging sway along with her, resulting the two creatures nearly falling off from her. And by the sound of it, there seemed to be even more of them behind her too.

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy, Prints", Iowa tried to calm her down, as Eugen seemed to be about to swat the two hanging creatures off her rigging. "They're fairies, they're on our side. They'll just take off your rigging so they could repair it."

"Huh? Oh, I see..." Eugen said as she took another look at the "fairies", now seemingly upset that she had just jumped without a warning like that. She tried to calm them down by greeting them, with a rather meek attempt. " _G-Guten morgen_..."

Even though this wasn't enough to calm them down by itself, the fairies did notice the slight quilt on her face. And as they realized that this might've been her first time seeing something like them, they decided to forgive her and kept fiddling around with the rigging.

"So, does this take long?" Eugen asked, now trying to stand as still as possible while the fairies were working behind her.

"Well, the first time may take a while, so you might want to sit down until they're done", Iowa suggested. The fairies took note of this suggestion, and quickly grabbed onto the rigging as Eugen slowly sat down on a nearby stool. And as she was being stationary again, the fairies kept going with their business again.

A huge hatch leading to the indoor dock had been closing itself this entire time, and after it was sealed off completely, it didn't take long when the sound of a muffled engine echoed throughout the vessel and the ship began to move after a brief twitch.

" _G'morning y'all!_ " a voice suddenly echoed through a set of speakers placed on the ceiling. " _As you can see, we managed to finish the job here sooner than expected, so we'll be heading for the Bikini Atoll 3 hours ahead of schedule! Unless you've been told otherwise, you're free to use your time as you wish for the next 10 hours, but please be ready to return to your posts on a moment's notice. Peace!_ "

After hearing that, the fairies working on the rigging looked at each other, and began to work among the rust even more enthusiastically. However, the German girl had quite the opposite of a reaction, when she remembered where she had heard the name of the atoll before.

"W-Wait, isn't that-?! Why are we going back _there_?!"

"Oh, yes, we forgot to mention that, huh..." Able realized.

And then she noticed the German girl's look.

"Ah. B-But don't worry, we're not going there to nuke warships this time."

Able immediately regretted her choice of words as soon as she spoke them, as Eugen's expression turned rather bizarre; a one that seemed to both appreciate and disapprove this unbashful bluntness. Unable to come up with a good way to rephrase her message, Able quickly turned away from the German girl's gaze and covered her face with her hands out of shame.

"Real subtle there", Iowa noted, tapping on the embarrassed girl's shoulder.

"Shut up..." Able muffled through her hands.

"Well, chances are that that's what she wanted to hear, so no need to blush your cheeks off", Baker suddenly called out to them, as he made his way down the stairs. And as he reached the other three, he pulled out the tabloid like device, turned it on and began to inspect the girl through its camera.

While Eugen looked a bit dubious about the man and the device, Baker could see how the device was scanning its video feed, gradually highlighting the girl and her rigging. The device eventually presented some information about her, with the first tab of the interface showing the name and percentages representing her vital functions.

"Okay, looks like everything checks out fine. The girl _is_ who we think she is, and her body seems to be fully stabilized. Although..." Baker glanced over another tab with information about the rigging, and the rigging itself, "I'll assume that this 'RIGGING: Operational' bit actually means that the conversion was merely successful. Heh, the little guys really hadn't planned further than a California raid with these things..."

"Wait, further than a _what_ raid?" Iowa suddenly said, with a slightly confused look on her face.

"...Hm? Ah, no, I didn't mean an actual raid, it's uum... It's a figure of speech."

"Ooh, got it"

"Anyhow", Baker cast the device aside and reached out his hand for a shake. "Nice to meet you, Prints Oigen. My name is Baker Marsh. One might say... a scientist of sorts."

But as he was shaking her hand, he noticed that the German girl's firm grip suddenly loosened up a bit when he had mentioned his name, with her face showing considerable signs of confusion.

"...Wait, hang on, is this for real?" Iowa suddenly said, seemingly confused as the newcomer. "Didn't that _other_ bomb that was used back then have the same name as-"

"Yes, yes it did", Able interrupted, again. "And I think he just noticed it too."

Baker had raised his free hand and was tapping his clenched fist against his forehead, with his face reflecting on his unthoughtful slip of the tongue.

"Uuuhm... Is this a coincidence or...?" Eugen asked while facing towards the other two girls with a rather uneasy expression.

"Well, I... Probably, I-I mean... Yes..." Able tried to convince both the German girl and herself. But as Eugen didn't look that convinced, Able decided not to go with this unsure assumption. "I don't know, we're not our parents!"

Seeing that these two people were nearly as flustered as she was, Eugen assumed that they really weren't trying to bring up bad memories on purpose. They just didn't think that far enough.

"Uum, P-Prints, I think this suffices..." Baker finally managed to speak up, grabbing the girl's attention again and making her realize that they've been holding hands this entire time.

"Ah, _es tut mir leid_ ", Eugen apologized, loosening her grip.

"Ahem, anyway, Prints Oigen", Baker said as he took out a notebook and scrolled it through, stopping by a certain bookmark. "This... Might be a bit harsh for you, but I believe some things need to be made clear before we move on. First of all, I believe you should know that neither the Third Reich or _Kriegsmarine_ are really around anymore, and..."

"Uuhm, bro. We kinda mentioned that already", Able interrupted her brother.

Baker looked up to her for a while with a bit surprised expression, and then back to the German girl, who confirmed this notion with a small nod.

"Oh... Well, uum..." Baker scrolled through his notebook and stopped by another bookmark. "Ah, here we go. Second of all, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but we're not here in the behalf of the followers of the Nazi forces or sorts. We're here from the United States of America, a nation that used to be one of the..."

"We kinda got that settled as well." Iowa interrupted him.

Baker looked up to the two, and then back to the German girl again, who first was a bit timid about this claim, but eventually gave another small nod. Baker then turned his attention back to the other two, with quite a frustrated look as he put the notebook back into his pocket.

"Ah", Able sounded as she realized what the notebook was about, "he was preparing to break out these news to her these last couple of days, wasn't he?"

"Oh, that's right. I think we accidentally ruined his efforts, huh?" Iowa noted. "Well, at least he'll get his chance at the Atoll... Uum, c-could you stop looking us like that, please? We're sorry, okay..."

Eventually Baker managed to tear his gaze away from the two and back to the German girl, who seemed to flinch a bit at first by the sight of his expression. After he had managed to vent out most of the frustration, Baker decided to keep the rest of his message plain and simple.

"War. Over. Now. World. Danger. Now. Help. Us. Now... Please", Baker listed, all while being seemingly oblivious of his slight teeth gritting look.

"(Uwaah... What's with this guy? Is he doing that on purpose?)", Eugen thought to herself. "(Although, he doesn't seem to be weird in a bad way or anything...)"

"Uum, I already told these two that I would try my best to help you people out, but... Honestly, I'm not sure _how_ I can help you out, and _what_ I should help you out with. And, I'd like to know why you made me like... This."

"Oh, yes, I'll explain it all once we get this off your back", Baker said as he tapped on the rusty rigging hanging on the girl's-

 **SNAP!**

 _ **SPLASH!**_

...The rigging snapped off from the rack on Eugen's back, and sank in the bottom of the dock.

"...Huh?" Eugen sounded, realizing what had just happened, as she turned around and looked in the water. "Aah! My turrets!"

"Uuuhm, we can fix this... P-Probably", Baker said, taken quite aback by the worse than expected state of the rigging. It seemed to be pure luck that the whole thing hadn't snapped off while they were still out on the open sea.

As the ones who were working on the rigging began to emerge from the water, Baker and Eugen began to pick the fairies up on the dock one by one. And after a while of trying to get their clothes a little less wet, some of the little guys began to head for a crane on the other side of the dock.

And after another while, Baker had managed to detach Eugen's back rack as well with a help of a hammer and a chisel.

"Okay, that should do it", Baker said as he picked up the bits and pieces of the rack on the floor, handing some of them over to Eugen.

"...Uuum, I'm sorry but... Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Eugen asked with a tone of disbelief, as she glanced over the remains of her rack, and the crane that was just about to submerge its hook under the water.

"Well, not really", Baker said, but before Eugen had time to express her baffled remarks, he kept going. "But, but! I was told that we can fix these kind of things as long as we have the ship's soul present. Which in this case would be you, though I'm not sure _how_ it would help."

"I see..." Eugen said, not fully convinced about this notion.

"Ahem, anyway", Baker turned his attention to the other two, passing the remains of Eugen's rigging to Iowa, prompting the German girl to do the same, "you, take these and that capsule to the arsenal, and you, Able, stay here and see that the rigging is properly salvaged."

"Huh?! Why us?"

"Since you two already briefed her about the past, I'll just skip to the part where I'll brief her about the present!" Baker said as he was already walking away from them, waving his hand to signify the German girl to follow him. Still a bit cautious, Eugen took a look at the other two girls. Able let out a sigh.

"You'll be fine. My brother may be a bit strange, but he's not a bad guy. And you really need to hear what he has to say."

And after Iowa agreed with this notion by a brief nod, the German girl followed the man up the stairs.

* * *

It knew what it was. It knew what it does. But it didn't knew why it was not its.

A series of tentacles swirled around the capsule with the greenish tint, inspecting its shape, weight and everything in between. No matter how it inspected the capsule, it knew it was like any other one of these, since it had done this thousands of times for thousands of these before.

...However, it knew something was different. The way it looked, the way it feels, the way it glows, all that was different.

Intrigued by this different capsule, it eventually decided to check why it was so different. It began to dismantle the thing, piece by piece, until it had extracted the container of the substance. With a sharp hit, one of the tentacles broke through the container, scooping out some of its contents.

However, something very strange began to happen. The tentacle that scoped the substance began to wither away, with the withering slowly spreading up the tentacle towards it. Thinking that letting this spread from this tentacle would be bad, it swiftly cut it down, letting the tentacle wither on the ground, eventually turning into foam.

It knew this was wrong. It knew this was not how these were supposed to be made. The substance was too pure, it knew that it should've been more tainted. But it also knew that none of the previous capsules were this pure, so what went so wrong with this one...?

At the time, it didn't even think about drawing the lines between the breakout of some of the workforce, the appearance of this different capsule, and - most importantly - the lost contact between two planned vessels. Maybe it was the time span, maybe it was the distance between these occurrences, or maybe it was because it thought it didn't matter at this point.

Had it known the definition of time, it probably would've pondered about the last 70 years it had spent setting up this undertaking. And now, it was just adding some finishing touches, before it was ready to put its plan into motion.

The plan of dominance over the seas.

* * *

"Please, take a seat", Baker said as the two had reached a cabin akin to a conference room on the top floor of the ship.

"Ah, _danke_ ", Eugen replied as she took off her hat and sat down.

Baker went and sit in front of a laptop, tapped some of its buttons to wake it up, which also prompted a nearby projector to come back to life.

As he was preparing for a slideshow, Baker noticed the mesmerized look on the German girl's face, as her gaze bounced between laptop and the projected screen. She seemed to have hard time to comprehend that what Baker was doing with his strange looking contraption was being shown on the canvas hanging from the ceiling. Eventually she also realized the function of the projector on the table, as she reached out and began to move her hand in front of the device to make shadows on the canvas. But as she was seemingly about to get up and explore the rest of the room...

"Uum, I'm sure you have a lot to see in this room, but I'd like to get this briefing out of the way first", Baker said, prompting Eugen to remember the situation and sit back down.

"Oh, s-sorry."

After he had skipped the first few slides he had planned to dedicate to the past events, he started his slideshow from a slide with pictures of Fog Tunnels.

"Ahem. So, it's currently the year of 2013. The world has pretty much recovered from the Second World War, as in the one that you took part in, and the crimes committed on all sides have been mostly atoned for."

"Wait, hang on", Eugen suddenly interrupted, "what do you mean by _World_ War?"

"Hm? ...Oh, right, I guess you wouldn't know... Well, I'll come back to that later if you want, so stick with me for a while."

With her curiosity lit and a possibility to catch up with the world, Eugen barely managed to push her questions away for later use.

"Anyhow", Baker pointed towards the canvas and the pictures, "a couple of years ago, cargo ships began to report on these strange pillars of fog all over the world, appearing and disappearing on a moment's notice on the open sea. They've mostly been harmless, but after some smaller ships tried their luck and plunged into them, it was advised that no one should try to make any kind of contact with them."

"Hm, how come? It's just fog."

"And that's why no one thought much of the consequences. All of these ships has since gone missing as they vanished in the fog."

" _Was_?! How is that possible?"

"No one knows... Well, at least publicly, I'll come back to that later."

Baker pressed a button on the laptop, bringing up another slide. This time it had pictures of a Fog Tunnel with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

"Now, these things had only been sighted in the open sea, so they hadn't really received any major news coverage beyond those few disappearance cases. However, about three months ago, one of these things appeared right in the middle of the San Francisco Bay."

Eugen gave a bit of a questioning look.

"...Ah, San Francisco is a city on the West Coast of the United States. Thousands of people were able to witness the event because of this unusual location."

That seemed to answer her unspoken question.

"So, long story short, due to some reckless actions of some local fishermen, the police ended up confisticating what seemed to be an empty miniature landing craft dragged out from the fog. However..."

Baker pressed a button again, bringing up a video clip that began to play as soon as it appeared on the screen. The video showed a group of men struggling to untangle a net around a small landing craft.

But based on her expression, Eugen seemed to notice something else.

"Hang on, aren't those the _mädchen_ from the dock?"

"...If you're referring to the the fairies, then yes. Apparently, none of those men saw them, and none of the police that arrived at the scene saw them either. But since the boat was something that was dragged out from the fog, it was eventually passed to our unit at the FBI for further investigations. And that's when me and my sister met them. Well, at least Able did."

Eugen gave a questioning look again.

After realizing why she looked at him like that again, Baker took out a piece of paper and a pen, and passed them over to her.

"You know, if I mention more things that you don't know about, just write it down and I'll explain them properly afterwards."

Eugen seemed to concur that this method was for the best, as she promptly began to write on the paper. And as Baker had expected, the first thing she wrote was FBI.

"So, at this FBI, my sister insisted that she was seeing little people hanging around that boat, but no one really believed her at first. Well, I can't really blame them, most of us honestly thought she was just hallucinating from the workload at the time. Me included... However, things got pretty hectic after the little guys provided some... Interesting intel."

"Hm, what kind of intel?"

Baker hesitated a bit, but he eventually put on the next slide, which showed photos of stranded and ruined yachts and fishing boats.

"Initially there were only six confirmed cases, but these photos they provided brought our calculations up to twenty-one."

It took a while, but Eugen eventually realized the implication.

"Wait, you mean those are the ships that had gone missing? After entering the fog?"

"Yes, we were able to identify all of the six missing boats, as well as couple of boats related to other unsolved disappearance cases. It seems like someone had a camera with them before stranding there, and they took these pictures of those ships. The little guys found the camera and snatched its SD card with them."

Eugen was about to say something, but she ended up looking at Baker with a questioning glance again for a while, before appending her list with the term SD card.

"So, where were these photos taken? It looks like a dark cavern. Have you managed to find those stranded people yet?"

"...If we had, I wouldn't really bring this up like this."

"Ah, _du hast recht_ ", Eugen noted with an agreeing look.

"However, we are fairly certain that... Those people aren't really... N-Never mind", Baker ended up dodging the topic as he was about to change to the next slide. But then he seemed to remember something. "Oh, yes. Oigen, I want you to look at this next one very carefully. If Iowa's reaction is any indication, we have a reason to believe that you might know something about this."

This brought a pretty confused look on the German girl's face.

"(Huh? Know something? About what? But you people only just made me like this, what could you possibly show me that I would know anything abo-?")

Baker pressed the button.

...

... **?!**

He wasn't joking.

This _is_ something she had seen before.

"This is the last photo from that camera. When we first saw this, we honestly had no idea what to think of it at first, but... I assume you can shed even more light on this."

The image featured a view towards a lake inside the cavern, showing a towering clump of greyish, oozing tentacles sprawling from the lake. With some of the tentacles clearly speeding right towards the camera.

Startled by the image, Eugen had stood up in shock, but she eventually sat back down and faced towards Baker. And after some hesitation, she finally decided to tell what she knew.

"Y-Yes, I've seen those... Things before. More than once, actually. I began to spot them around the time when I was placed on support duties in _die Ostsee_. They would've slowly circled around me or other ships of my fleet, sometimes they would've even rubbed against our hulls. But since they never really did anything and no one on board seemed to notice them, I didn't pay that much attention to them at the time. However..."

"Yes?"

"After I... After I capsized near that island, I began to notice something odd about them. After a while had passed, everything around me became so fuzzy and hazy and... I couldn't really make out people's faces, seagulls, or even the ocean waves. And yet, every time I spotted those things, they were always clear as day. Even if they were, let's say, a kilometer away, I could always see them wiggling in the distance."

"...And how do you think they had been recently?"

"Huh, recently? Well, I don't think they had been really that... No, wait. Now that you mentioned it, they had been acting even stranger than before recently. Sometimes they came up really close, rubbing against my hull, and then-"

"They would attempt to wrap themselves lightly around you, staying like that for a while, and then dropping back down beneath the waves, correct?"

Eugen looked at Baker with a confused expression, shocked that he had known exactly what she was about to say.

"How did you-?"

"Iowa told us about similar encounters with these things, now we know it wasn't just her. She said that she first encountered them as she was conducting a... 'Transport' mission on the Mediterranean Sea. But unlike most warships of your time, she remained active for a long time after the war, before she eventually ended up as a museum ship in the US. And yet, even with all the places she went over the years, those things were always there, circling her."

"You mean, her recent encounters had been...?"

"Yes, recently the tentacles had been trying to climb on-board, and every time they came back to her, they were always a bit closer to reach her deck. And despite all the people that had boarded her over the years, no one had noticed a thing about them..."

"...So, what are those things then? Why doesn't anyone else notice them?"

"Unfortunately, that's the extent of out intel so far, we're all still looking into these things."

Baker switched a new slide on the screen.

"So, Prints Oigen. What does all this have to do with this trip and your current state like that?"

Eugen's mind was swiftly brought away from her past and back to the present.

"After the little guys had established that... Well, that they were _there_ , they claimed that they were kidnapped by these things and forced to work on various odd contraptions in this strange cavern. They didn't really mind about it at the time, or rather, they were actually enjoying it, but as those boats began to strand around them, they began to realize the sinister nature of what they were doing."

"...Uuh, what _were_ they doing?"

"...W-Well, part of it has something to do with those stranded people, I guess you could say."

"Oh..."

"...Anyhow, a group of these little guys decided that enough was enough, and after some intense planning, they managed to open up a Fog Tunnel to the San Francisco Bay."

Catching a new term again, Eugen was about to write it down, but...

"Ah, wait, wait, wait, I should've told this one right off the bat. People ended up calling those fog pillar things Fog Tunnels after the incident in that bay, and that's what everyone has been calling them ever since. Although, even if it might've been a big coincidence, I think that term works perfectly for this."

Eugen took out the eraser part of the pen, and took out the part she had already written.

"However, the tentacles noticed this attempt sooner than they had anticipated, and for a while it seemed like that their outbreak was going to be a failure. But luckily, that's when the fishing net shot out by those local fishermen pierced the fog, and landed perfectly on their craft. And after the tentacles had reached them, the little guys ended up trying to fend them off with the tools they had, all while the fishermen and the tentacles were having a tug of war."

"Hm? That sounds oddly weak from the image I got from these tentacles."

"I actually thought the same thing, but it seems like these tentacles don't belong to one singular entity, so the little guys managed to time their escape when most of them weren't within the cave. And luckily, the fishermen managed to win in the end, and the craft was dragged out from the Fog Tunnel and away from the clutches of these tentacles. And unbeknownst to the little guys, the tentacles seemed to be unable to follow them out to the bay, as they suddenly let go of their craft as soon as they got out."

"Hmm... I'd like to assume that that was it, but I don't think you would go through the trouble of turning me into this kind of form just 'because'."

"Yes. The little guys claimed that whatever those tentacles were preparing to do, they were going to be ready in 'near future'. And they claimed that the warships from your era have something to do with it."

"Huh? Why would they claim something like that? That's really specific."

Baker changed the slide again, this time showing a map of the world, but with hundreds of pen markings all over the the world's oceans.

"One of the little guys marked these spots from what she could remember from a map she found in that cavern. Even though she said that she might've forgotten about twenty or something of them, we've verified that most of these are marking the sunken ships that were active during the last world war, and even some that are still in one piece as museum ships. And the rest are most likely the ones that have still been undiscovered."

Hearing all this, Eugen's gaze quickly glanced over the map, first looking over the general area she recalled seeing from her own maps before she capsized, and she eventually spotted a little mark with a label "Prinz Eugen" on it. And then, rather reluctantly, she began to search for the area where the two… Detonations took place, and she soon found an atoll with a handful of marks, which basically obscured it from the map.

...And lastly, she briefly checked around the Atlantic Ocean near Europe, eventually spotting a mark with a label "Bismarck" on it. After a brief wistful sigh, she turned her attention back to Baker.

"Now, while the little guys said that they don't know how these tentacles will carry out their plan, the little guys did claim to know their goal; using repurposed, humanized warships to take over the oceans."

"...Huh? I-I'm sorry, _kannst du das wiederholen_?"

Baker remained a bit quiet for a moment, not sure how to interpret this tad longer German phrase. But after he assumed that it meant something like ' _What?_ ', he tried to answer accordingly.

"W-Well, needless to say, people thought that they were crazy. Or, rather, people thought that Able was crazy, since she had been the one conveying their messages that entire time. But then the little guys claimed that if the people wanted proof, they would recreate the substance that the tentacles are supposedly planning to use to achieve their goal. And after weeks of work with leftover resources, me and Able eventually made our way to Iowa with the recreated substance at hand."

At this point, Eugen finally realized the implication.

"W-Wait, you mean that this substance... Is the reason why I'm here now like this?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"A-Are you planning to use me to take over the oceans then?!"

"Huh...? Oh, wait, sorry, no, let me rephrase that... The substance the little guys ended up recreating left out two of the elements that they were forced to use when they were still trapped. First of them was oil, which only seemed to serve as a diluent for the second ingredient. And the second was... Well, as the little guys put it, 'the tentacles would come and cut a part of themselves, throw it into the mix, after which it would turn into foam'."

"Euugh, what was that for?"

"To ensure a mind control."

"...That... Came out pretty fast. How are you so sure about it?"

"...The tentacles tested some of that substance on the stranded humans, the little guys said. One of them was forced to mark the map the little guys found in that cave."

Eugen stayed silent for a while, having a problem taking all this information in. Partly it was because of her years of solitude out of action, but mostly it was because she didn't want to imagine any of those situations play out in her mind. But after she had managed to cope with these thoughts, she began to wonder about another thing from this conversation.

"S-So, are you sure that this... Oily mix was really the thing behind this mind control thing?"

"...Yes, fairly sure. The little guys had kept an eye out on Iowa on that regard ever since they met her a few weeks back, but so far they claim that she hasn't shown any similar symptoms from what they saw while in captivity."

Baker could see how the girl calmed down considerably.

"...Uum, so, I've been wondering about this for a while now, but... You really seem to take those _mädchen_ 's word for granted, _herr_ Baker. Haven't you considered that they might be... You know, lying?"

"...Well, truth to be told, I honestly have no idea about that... But, look, small bobbleheaded people, odd gateway like fog pillars, spirits of warships in flesh and blood... That is not normal, even in this day and age. And if something as strange as them would come up and tell you an even stranger tale... You can't just help but give it some weight."

"Oh, I see... So, this operation... Those little _mädchen_... Me sitting by this table... What does this all have to do with this threat?"

"Well, according to the little guys, that plan is just too far ahead for anyone to stop it at this point. Just coming across a Fog Tunnel to enter that place is hard as it is. So, the little guys came up with a counterplan; gather as many of these vessels away from the oceans as possible, and prepare for counter-offensive measures when the time comes. That's why we are here, and that's why we are currently heading towards the Bikini Atoll; to bring as many of you back as possible."

"(Uwaah... Even though _fräulein_ Iowa told we still have a purpose to fulfill, this is nothing like I was expecting at all!)", Eugen thought to herself.

"(...Hm? _Warten_.)"

"So... If this threat is so serious, does this mean there are more of you out there gathering us like this? Are there similar operations taking place, like, in _Europa_? Is it possible that I can meet up with some of my _kamerad_?!"

With the the girl standing up and her eyes brimming with hope and joy, Baker found himself in a bit of an awkward situation. But after some pondering, he decided that - as unpleasant as it was - telling their current situation would be the best course of action.

"Uum, well, actually... The thing is, only the FBI in the US is aware of any of this, and they... Kind of thought of it as a joke or something and... W-Well, the thing is..."

The more Baker kept blabbering, the more Eugen's hope on the matter began to decrease, with her face reflecting on that.

"Y-Yes, how many of us are there then?"

"Two", Iowa suddenly called out by the door, prompting the other two to turn their attention to her. "And that includes both you and me."

"Wha-? _Zwei_?!" Eugen exclaimed in disbelief, turning her attention back to Baker. "How many of you actually took this seriously in that FBI?!"

"Uugh... W-Well, pretty much none at first, but after we did that whole thing on Iowa... Uum, well, the people kind of freaked out, so instead of assisting us with this thing, they told us to go somewhere else with 'our liquids and little people'. And, uuh... T-They didn't tell anyone anything about this, even though hundreds of thousands of people are now aware of Iowa's disappearance."

"Ha? They told you people to leave with your... W-Wait, does this mean you weren't even planning to come here at _all_? Does that mean you weren't even planning to come for me?!"

"Ah. Wait, I didn't say that! I-I mean... Well... Uuhm, now that you mentioned it, I guess that is kind of the case here..."

"(Uwaaah, what is this?! For a moment I thought there was much more going on here, but are they really just some _verrückter_ people that were looking too much into this?! Did they really just come for me because I was only half-sank and easy to get? ...Wait, how are they going to do this for those that _had_ sank?! This operation is all over the place!)"

"Well, even if this turned out like this, I think it was for the best", Iowa said as she put her hand on the baffled girl's shoulder. "Out here we don't have as much people to freak out, less chance of ending up in the news, and most importantly", Iowa looked up to Baker with a smirk on her face, "'no bigwigs constantly breathing down our necks'."

Baker was about to say something about this quotation, but as he realized how much he agreed with this notion, he decided to remain silent.

"Also, out here those little girls have had chance to properly set up all the things we need, which we wouldn't had time to do if we had brought back everyone we had initially planned. Heck, my rigging took them all this time to get it working, imagine how it would've been with ten of them."

"I see..." Eugen said, not quite convinced about this talk. "...So, _Fräulein_ Iowa... Do you believe those... Girls?"

"...I think Baker put it rather nicely. 'If something as strange as them would come up and tell you an even stranger tale, you can't just help but give it some weight ', right?"

"Wha-? How long were you...? W-Well, yes..."

"Also, I don't think you should worry about that you happen to be here just because it was easy."

Eugen gave Iowa a bit of a distressed look, confirming Iowa's assumptions.

"Just look at me, I'm here only because _that_ guy said that 'let's go to her because she's way more interesting'."

Knowing that he had only mentioned this to a couple of fairies, Baker was quite shocked to hear that she knew about this blurt. He tried to make that claim somewhat more graceful, but since that was pretty much as he said it, he ended up crouching his head a bit to hide his face behind the laptop screen.

"(Uwaaah...)" Eugen thought to herself, looking a bit more disapprovingly towards the man.

"So, let's just be happy that we got to be among the first to be brought back. We can then brag about it when we meet up with everyone else."

"...Everyone... Else?"

"Hm? Ah, oh yeah, even though the girls said that those... Creepy crawly thingies are supposed to be ready in the 'near future', they didn't mention any specific dates or anything. Heck, I think they lost their sense of time when they were captured, their sleeping cycles were all over the place when I first met them. So we could easily be talking about weeks or even _months_ before this whole thing starts off, it's already been three months since they made their escape. Hehee, and who knows, we might even be able to reach Europe and bring back some of your comrades as well."

"That is actually pretty unlikely so I didn't mention that during the-", Baker was about to note, but Iowa gave him a bit of a piqued look. "Sorry..."

"Everyone... Else..." Eugen muttered again, and after a while, her face lit up a bit. "Heh, this all just sounds so crazy... Well, _everything_ so far has been crazy. But, knowing that I have some time to take this all in, I think I can handle what comes next... Maybe..."

"Well, we're both on the same line with that one..." Iowa noted with a bit of a wistful sigh. "...As I said, even I have no idea what's going to lie ahead of us, but let's try to see it through, okay?"

"... _Ja_ , okay", Eugen replied meekly. Even though the uncertainty was pretty obvious on her face, knowing that she wasn't only one feeling like that brought a brief smile on her face.

The silence hanged over the room for a while, but that time gave Baker time realize something. And that realization brought up some questions.

"...Hang on, Iowa, what are you even _doing_ here? Did you take those bits and pieces to the arsenal like I asked you?"

"Wha-? I may had thought about avoiding it, but I did take them there properly! And... W-Well, I was expecting that the chief would've been mad about one of those capsule things, but I think being _that_ mad was just..."

And then she seemed to remember why she came to this cabin in the first place.

"Ah, yes! Oigen, the girls told me to come pick you up after the briefing, they said they needed you in the arsenal."

"Huh, really? Why would they-?" Eugen said as she was about to stand up, but then she remembered the prevailing situation. "Oh, wait, is there anything else or...?"

"...Well, I think that was pretty much it, you know everything that we know now", Baker said, pressing the laptop's space bar a few times to end the slideshow. "Take her to the arsenal Iowa, I'll wrap things up here and drop by later."

"Alrighty, Bakey", Iowa replied, tapping on the German girl's shoulder. "Come on, I'll show you the way."

"Ah, _j-ja_ ", Eugen said, picking up her hat and putting it back on. " _Heil_ , _herr_ Baker!"

Baker almost jolted out of his chair by the sudden salute, completely unprepared to encounter this kind of behavior. And after seeing his face, Eugen remembered what Able had mentioned while out on the ocean and promptly put down her hand.

"Oh, this was a bad thing to do these days, wasn't it?"

"Ah, y-yes", Baker replied, still baffled by her sudden outcry. "Uuuhm, once you're done at the arsenal, I can fill you up on the things you found weird about this briefing and... Things like that too, okay?"

Eugen nodded briefly, before following Iowa out of the cabin.

...

...

"(Aaagh! It went so well in the beginning!)" Baker thought to himself, as he buried his face in his hands out of shame.

* * *

Chapter 2 Afterword: (19/8/2016)

Welp, this took a while.

Now that all the briefing is out of the way, I can finally get to the part that I've pondered on the most. Hopefully this won't take as much time as this one.

See you later.


	3. Chapter 3: The Arsenal

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Arsenal**

* * *

"So, what do you think about him?" Iowa asked as she was taking a ladder to a lower deck.

"Huh?" Eugen sounded, still a bit flustered about her salute.

"You know, Baker, what's your impression of him?"

"Well, I think he's a weird _dummkopf_ ", Eugen replied straight away.

...And then she realized that she had said it out loud.

"Ah, w-wait, I didn't mean to say it like that! I mean, he's not a bad weird _dummkopf_ , but rather a good weir... No, wait. That's not how it works!"

"Heh, you sound kinda like me after I met him", Iowa smirked as she had descended to the lower deck. "Don't worry, you'll get used to him soon enough... And he's definitely much more interesting than what we could've ended up with..."

"Hm, what was that?"

"Nothing. Watch your steps."

"Naturally... Uuhm, w-what are you doing?"

As Eugen had placed herself on the ladder to climb down, Iowa had swiftly moved herself near the ladder.

"Ooh, so yours are white, I see", Iowa chuckled as she looked up towards the German girl.

Realizing the subject, Eugen swiftly let go of the ladder and covered her stern from the battleship's view. And by doing so she lost her balance and crashed straight on the blondie below.

"Ow!" the two uttered as they fell on the lower deck.

"What was that!?" Baker suddenly shouted out as he ran out of the cabin. And a moment later, he was gazing down the ladder. "...Uuh, what happened to you tw-?"

"S-S-She looked up my skirt!" Eugen let out, with her face glowing red out of embarrassment and her stern resting on the battleship.

...Part of Baker wanted a bit more elaborate explanation, another wanted him to go back to his laptop and notes. But after a moment in silence, Baker eventually figured out how the situation had most likely played out, and the option of information technology reigned supreme.

"Iowa, don't go looking up people's skirts", Baker eventually said as he began to make his way back, "it's not good for your health."

"'Kaaay", Iowa mumbled, but with a face that didn't seem to regret what she had just done. "...Hehe, sorry about that, I just couldn't resist."

"W-Well, just don't do it again, okay?" Eugen said as she was about to get up.

"Maybe... If I feel like it."

Eugen sat back down, with a bit of added force.

"Owow, okay, okay, I won't do it again!"

And eventually, the two had stood up.

"Ahem, anyhow, let's get to the arsenal. It's just through those doors."

Still a bit mad, Eugen turned her attention towards the doors. But as she noticed what Iowa was talking about, she turned her attention back towards the blondie with a questioning glance.

"Hm? What is it?"

"Well, it's just that I passed those doors when _Herr_ Baker was leading me to that cabin, and... From what I saw, they were just doors, set up on that weird scaffold not leading anywhere."

"...Aah, that's right, you wouldn't know about any of this", Iowa said as they reached the doors. And after opening the door, the sound of waves, wind and motor were suddenly overthrown by the sound of machinery, water spraying and chattering through speakers.

" _Okay, how does it look like now?!_ "

" _I think the radiation readings are still be a bit too high, we should try to spray the stern one more time!_ "

Instead of a view of the wall on the opposing side of this weird setup, the view beyond the door seemed to be more of a workshop, with heat faintly emanating through the doorway.

Iowa went ahead and entered, prompting the German girl to follow her.

Even by a quick glance, the arsenal seemed to be much larger than the boat they were all currently sailing. Pipes wriggling all over the high ceiling, dozens of ovens lined up in a row, conveyor belts crawling all over the place. None of these would had fit anywhere on the boat... But how did _this_ place fit in then?

And right from the door, after she had let her eyes wander long enough, Eugen spotted a row of weird racks, one which had her busted rigging resting on it. And by her rigging she saw two girls, one of which she recognized as Able.

But as she and Iowa were closing in on them, the other girl noticed them, and began to approach the two ship girls with a rather sour look on her face.

"Hey, you, German!" the girl exclaimed, making both Eugen and Iowa stop themselves. "What the hell was with your rigging, why didn't you tell us that the whole thing was rotten as shit?!"

"E-Eh? Eeeh?!" Eugen sounded, taken aback by this sudden outburst.

"(Uwaah, w-what is this, who is she?! Why is she that mad about my... Wait, "rigging"? Is _that_ what that thing is called...? Huh, I see...)"

"...Huh? Hey, didn't you hear me?! I asked you a quest-Bleagh!"

Able slapped the mad girl with a rolled up file.

"Just calm down would you, how would've she known anything about that? We can't just expect her to know every little detail, even we couldn't expect it to crumble like that."

"Owowow... But now my notes are all wet and crumbly, and my clothes are still wet from that dip in the dock!"

This retort made Eugen finally notice something. This frustrated girl shared a striking resemblance to one of the fairies that she saw fiddling with the part of the rigging that was stuck on her waist. But... That fairy was really small, almost small enough to fit on one's palm. And this girl wasn't anywhere near that size at all, she was nearly as tall as Eugen.

"...Uum, I'm sorry, but... Who are you, exactly?"

Iowa gave a bit of a smirk, as she put her mouth next to the German's ear.

"She's exactly who you think she is", Iowa whispered.

"...Huh?" Eugen looked at Iowa, and back at the girl, and she kept repeating this pattern for a while. "B-But, she's not... She is... She... HOW?!"

"Well, we're not actually sure either", a voice suddenly called out behind Eugen, making everyone turn their attention towards it.

"Ack, C-Chief..." Iowa muttered, receiving a brief piqued look from this mysterious girl, probably for making her being there sound worse than it actually was. And after a moment, this bespectacled girl turned her attention back to Eugen.

"...In short, when we first boarded this ship, we used our know-how to make this... Well, this pocket realm of sorts, to keep going with our operations and research. But as we were setting this up, we noticed that every time we entered this place, we would turn looking like this. And everytime we leave, we would turn back to these bobbleheaded little people... Well, even if we have no idea what causes this, I think this just makes our work much easier, so I guess it's fine."

While she was taking this in, Eugen looked around her a bit more, and spotted some more people that shared a resemblance to the fairies she scooped from the dock, some with their clothes still being somewhat wet.

"(Uwaah, just when I thought this couldn't get any stranger...)"

"...So, why did you want me here, _Fräulein_... Uum..."

"Just call me the Chief", the girl said, walking past her towards the rigging. "I want you to give me something, so we can get these reparations underway. We should be about-"

" _Chief, the radiation has dropped down to a reasonable level! We'll be coming back up in a moment so you can get started!_ "

"...We _are_ done with the preliminary procedures. Hold on, I'll be back in a moment."

As the Chief walked off, Eugen finally decided to take a closer look on her rigging. But as she reached it, she finally took note of a fenced edge next to the rigging row, overlooking what seemed to be a surprisingly wide dry dock. However, the thing that was set up on the dry dock caught her completely by surprise.

It had been a while since she had seen it upright, but what she was seeing was unmistakably her original ship form, as it was just retrieved from the ocean.

" _W-Was_?! But..." Eugen looked behind her, to confirm whether the rigging was still behind her on the rack. It was.

She then looked back down, to confirm whether her original form was still on the dry dock. It was.

"But... This is... That is... How am I _here_ and _there_?!"

"Obviously we can't fiddle with everything we needed if we were like this and the fricking rigging is like this", the fairy who had been complaining joined Eugen by the fence, "so we came up with this method. We would project the original form of the rigging down there like this, and the things done on one of them would also affect the other one. Like, see them down there? They were trying to get rid off the radioactivity by spraying the projection, but it also affects this rigging."

Eugen took a closer look at the rigging, noticing that the bottom was somewhat wet. But as she noticed that some of the wetness was disappearing on one spot, she looked down at the projection again, where she saw someone running a giant fan near the wet spot.

"Also, if you do something like this on the rigging..."

"Ah, wait, don't touch tha-!" Able shouted as the fairy took hold of one of the rigging's turre-

 **SNAP!**

 _ **CLANG! CLONG!**_

...

" _W-What was that?!_ "

" _One of that turret's barrels just crashed down!_ "

" _Holy sh-! Is everyone okay?!_ "

" _Yes!_ "

" _Yes!_ "

" _You betcha!_ "

" _Aah, good! ...Any idea what caused it?!_ "

As the fairies down in the dock were evaluating the damages, the wet-clothed one could only stand there with the broken pipe in her hand, with Able and the ship girls looking at her rather disapprovingly.

"Uuhm... Well, it just... Heh, y-you know..." the fairy tried to explain this blunder, until she briefly checked whether there were anyone else looking at her before putting the broken pipe lying on the rigging. "...We can fix this."

"So I've heard..." Eugen mumbled.

"(Ueeeh, _was zum teufel_ is with these people?)", Eugen weeped in the back of her mind.

"Yes, we _can_ fix it", Chief suddenly called out while pushing a small cart, making the other fairy flinch a bit, "but now we need more steel if we want this thing to work, so chop chop."

The one responsible eventually began to crawl her way where the Chief had just came from.

"Now, Prinz Eugen, can you give me your hand for a second?"

Something about the way she spelled her name made Eugen feel oddly satisfied, even halting her for a moment before giving out her right hand.

The Chief took off Eugen's glove, and placed the bare hand on some kind of device lying on the cart, strapping the wrist on the device. She then rolled up Eugen's sleeve, after which she took out a belt and rolled it around the German girl's arm.

But then, rather worryingly, the Chief pulled out some kind of a crane with a huge spike on it, and placed it above Eugen's hand.

"...Uum, that... That doesn't look very nice... Should I be worried?"

"Well, all I know is that I should probably talk about rainbows and unicorns to get your mind off from what's about to come next."

"...Wait, what's a unic- _ACH_!?"

The spike swiftly stung her hand, drained something out of it, and then retracted itself, leaving the German girl wail over this sudden pain.

The Chief then swiftly placed a bandaid on the spot, before loosening the strap on Eugen's wrist. And once she was free, the German girl quickly dashed behind Iowa and Able for cover, glaring at the Chief.

"...I guess I can't blame you for looking at me like that, sorry..." Chief said with a bit of a sympathetic sigh. "But, when we tried to take out some blood from Iowa by the usual means, the needles we used couldn't penetrate her skin at all. You two may look like human, but your physique is much tougher than your average human being's."

This remark made Eugen realize that she didn't feel particularly hurt when she fell down the ladder, nor did she or Iowa seem to have gotten any bruises from that. And now that she thought about it, aside from the initial shock, her hand wasn't really that sore from what the Chief had just done.

"...So, why did you need my... Blood?"

"Well, even though we say 'blood', we're not exactly sure what to call this yet... But anyhow, this is what we need to get your rigging fixed."

The Chief took out a small container from the device she had just used, and took out a green bucket under the cart. She then opened the small container, and dumped its contents into the bucket.

For a while, nothing seemed to happen with the bucket, but it eventually began to emit a strange greenish glow. Although, after a while, this glow started to get a bit more brighter.

"Yeeeah, since that pipe got broken, we need to add some more steel before we can use this..." Chief mumbled. "What's the holdup over there?!"

"Yeah, yeah! I'm coming, I'm coming, jeez!" a voice answered, and sure enough, the grumpy one finally turned up with some steel bars. "So, how many do we need?"

"Just throw in a couple of them at first, we can just retrieve the amount that we don't need."

The fairy took two heavy looking steel bars, and dropped them inside the bucket.

"Uum, what kind of a _suppe_ are they going to make there?" Eugen whispered to the other two. "What are they planning to do with that steel?"

"That is... Actually a really good question", Iowa surprisingly concurred. "I did see them apply that thing on my rigging, but I didn't actually see them make it."

"Well, I've seen them doing it", Able joined in. "Although, I still have no idea how it works..."

After a while, the glow slowly became dimmer, until it had stopped to a certain intensity.

"Ah, it seems like it only needed about one and a half of them", Chief noted as she took out a pair of nippers, plunged them into the bucket, and pulled out a half-melted steel bar.

"E-Eeeeeeeh?!" Eugen and Iowa exclaimed in disbelief, not comprehending that what kind of a liquid could melt steel, but not a _bucket_.

"I know, right?" Able added.

The Chief put the remains of the steel bar away and waved her hand to the other fairy to help her with the bucket. The two then lifted the bucket off the cart, towards the rotten rigging, and then applied the entire bucketful of substance in one go.

...

"...Di... Did they just threw everything they had in that bucket? Just like that?!" Eugen asked, as she looked how the clump of slimy substance had only covered one side of the rigging.

"Uuhm, I thought this would've been a bit more graceful as well", Iowa concurred.

"Well, sorry for spending our time to figure out how to even get this thing to **work!** " Chief retorted. "We'll come up with something once we have time to spare for trivial things like that."

"Hmm, even if you say that..." Iowa pouted a bit. "So, how long is this gonna take? I understand that mine was pretty quick since my vessel was almost fully intact, but..."

Suddenly, the clump began to spread across the rigging, soon to the point that the entire thing was covered by an equally even layer of the substance.

"Hm, I think you can see for yourself", Chief noted.

Both the rigging and the projection began to emit strong light, with the patches of rust obscuring some of the light. But soon, these patches of rust began to fall off, as the light seemed to expand and push them off the rigging and the projection.

The light also began to spread on the empty turret mounts and the hole on the hull, with the light slowly forming turrets on the empty mounts.

This rust shedding and light spreading went on for a couple of more minutes, until the light eventually faded away, revealing the projection of a factory-new heavy cruiser, with nearly as glamorous rigging.

And for one who had doubted these claims of fixing her rigging more than once, Eugen was speechless as the sight before was exactly how she remembered herself after beginning her service in the _Kriegsmarine_. And at this point, all she could do was to switch her gaze between the projection, the rigging, and occasionally everyone else, all while seeming to have no idea what had just happened and what it implied.

"...You know, you can try to put it on if you want", Chief said, as Eugen's gaze had almost frozen on the rigging, with her hands seeming to be both eager and timid to touch the thing. But after the encouragement, Eugen meekly approached the thing, and with the help of Able, she began to put it on.

"...Wha... What the hell, Chief?!" Iowa suddenly shouted out, catching the fairies a bit off-guard. "It took you _two_ weeks to repair a seaworthy warship, but this one took only a matter of minutes?! That doesn't make any sense!"

But before the Chief managed to say anything, the other fairy spoke up.

"Aaactually, we managed to find the formula for that repairing substance in just two days since we began to work on it. But, since some of us didn't have anything better to do, we kept dismantling your turrets and repairing them by using the substance on the rigging to make our formula as efficient as possible."

"Wha-? I didn't give you a permission to do something like that!"

"...Uuh, yes you _did_. We specifically came to ask you on the third day whether or not we could postpone the full repair so we could do more research on the substance. We even took quite a lot of blood samples from you while we were at it."

"Huh, third day...? I don't remember seeing any of you that day, I was watching this one fantasy series I stumbled upon that morning."

...A moment of silence fell between the three, during which Iowa began to realize what her words had just implied.

"...So, would it be safe to assume... That you were focusing so much on the TV... That you completely ignored and forgot our request?"

"Uuugh... I think that sounds about right..." Iowa had to agree on this notion.

"Besides, thanks to all that research, we managed to make some pretty good progress with the substance, and that's how we managed to fix Oigen's rigging so fast now."

" _F-Fräulein_ Iowa..." Eugen suddenly called out, prompting the blondie to turn her attention to the German girl.

What she saw was a girl, with her tearing eyes full of excitement and joy, and a rigging that had its turrets spinning around like a ferris wheel gone haywire.

"L-Look, they move, they work! I only need to think about it and they move! Now I can really help you out with this, right?!"

...Well, maybe this was for the best after all.

"Yeah. It looks good on you", Iowa agreed, with her frustrated confusion pretty much blown away by this sparkling girl.

"Good job", Chief whispered to the fairy that had done all the talking.

"...Hm? Wait, did you just say-?"

"Don't. Look too much into it."

Even though the Chief said that, the fairy couldn't help but give herself a wide smug grin.

And it was then, that a door to the arsenal opened.

"Okay, sorry I'm late, writing down my memos took a while. So, how are things going on here? Do we have any estimate as to when Oigen's rigging would be...?"

Baker noticed the German girl and her spinning turrets.

"Wait, you're _done_ already? But, didn't Iowa's rigging... Well, never mind, now we can just put her straight to the combat simulation."

Eugen's turrets stopped spinning, as she heard the last few words.

"Uuh, combat... Simulation...?"

"Hm? Ah, yes, now that we got your rigging working this far ahead of schedule, we can just put you and Iowa conduct some tests in this combat simulation pool that the little guys finished a couple of days ago."

"...Hang on, bro. So far that had only been tested by Iowa, right?" Able asked.

"Well, tested as in that now we know that the pool creates waves as we've intended, we still haven't used it for a proper combat simulation... Hm, hang on."

It took him a while, but he eventually realized what this statement meant. And so did the Chief.

"Wait, we really haven't... Able, get the cameras ready! Chief, get Iowa's rigging ready, and I'll get the notes ready for you!"

"W-Wait, _herr_ Baker, what's going on now?" Eugen asked with a bit of a confused expression, since the situation seemed to get the fairies around the arsenal excited as well.

"So, as you can see, we've got to the point that we can fix these well enough that you seem to be able to control them without any problem", Baker said, giving a few taps on Eugen's rigging. "However, we've yet to test how these work in combat situations, as in how would you handle and shoot with these. So in a sense, this is our first chance to get some proper data on the workings of these things."

"But, wait, I was... Kind of hoping to learn more about the current state of the world after this..."

"I don't think that should be a problem, I can easily fill you in between the times when we need to refill your riggings between tests."

"Oh, really? Well, in that case, I'm fine."

"Don't you dare forget about me, you hear?" Iowa cut in, with a slight smirk on her face. "I may have learned a thing or two already, but she's not the only one who is interested about these kind of things, you know."

"Ah, y-yes, surely... Ahem, so, let's get you two to the pool, shall we?"

As Baker went ahead, Iowa turned her attention to Eugen, gave her a brief grin and thumbs up, before she hopped after Baker.

"(...No one else... Has done this before?)" Eugen thought. "(...In that case, I need to do my best! _Gib dein bestes, Prinz Eugen_!)"

After giving herself a slap on her cheeks to focus herself on the task at hand, she went after the two with a confident smile on her face.

* * *

The news about the first ever rigging test spread quickly across the yacht, gathering most of the fairies around the simulation pool to see how the first ship girls can handle their weaponry.

But since this was Eugen's second time standing on the water, the first phase was more about her initial struggle to get accustomed to her new form on water. And after that phase was out of the way, the real test began.

Being a former battleship with over a decade of experience, Iowa was able to blast away the targets with a relative ease. Or rather, the targets were a bit too small to get any proper results out of them, and more often than not she ended up shooting down the racks holding up the targets as well. Much to the onlooking fairies' annoyance, since even though they were capable of fixing these racks with ease, some fairies ended up leaving the site because the racks needed that fix way too often.

Now, for a heavy cruiser who had been out of commission for decades, Eugen's results weren't exactly spectacular when it came to the first round of tests. But as the tests kept going and she began to catch up with the flow, her performance grew considerably, even resulting in a few bullseyes. And by the end, she was able to hit the targets two out of three times.

Every time the two girls ran out of ammunition, their riggings would've been refilled with bullets, while which the girls would get a chance to chat with Baker and learn some more about the world. He managed tell them about things like FBI, SD cards, somehow video games, and Iowa even managed to tell the German girl about the wonders of Netflix.

This cycle of refilling and chatting went on for a while, until...

* * *

"(Hehee, beware ye rotten targets)", Iowa thought to herself, "(as you shall be mown down by the almighty BB-6-)"

But as she was aiming her next barrage, she suddenly began to feel her movement stutter for a bit. She first didn't think that much about it, but as she eventually began to slow down to the point that she had to resort to skating instead of propulsion of the rigging, she faced towards Baker and put her hands in form of an X to signify that something was wrong.

Baker soon took note of this signal, got out of his chair and went to the fairies handling the wave generator and told them to shut it down. And after a while, the pool eventually started to calm down.

"Iowa, what's wrong?!" Baker yelled as the wave generator had gone silent enough.

"My propulsion started to act up all of a sudden, it's pretty hard to keep up the speed now!"

"Huh...? O-Okay, Oigen, go to her and get her out of the pool!"

Eugen did as told and began to make her way towards the blondie. Meanwhile, Baker took out one of the tabloids, put it on and faced its camera towards the two girls. While the device eventually highlighted both of them, Baker clicked the tab that had the label "Iowa (BB-61)" on it.

"(Okay, let's see)", Baker thought to himself as he checked through the different tabs. "(There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her vitals, and no straining of any kind on her legs... She still has a good amount of ammo. Well, obviously, we just refilled them both... Nothing wrong with her guns, they seem to work perfectly... Well, neither of these last tabs should've been the problem for something like this, and there aren't any alarms going off, so what on earth is the problem with the-?)"

Baker then opened the "Others" tab.

"(...Oh, you've gotta be kidding me.)"

" _Baker, what happened down there, why did you stop?_ " Chief's voice suddenly came out of the radio. Baker lazily took out the radio, and answered it.

"...Fuel."

" _What?_ "

"Iowa ran out of fuel... Why is the fuel consumption chart in the 'Others' tab of this device and why doesn't it trigger any alarms?"

A moment of silence ensued, during which Baker assumed that the Chief was taking out one of these devices to check on this feature.

...

...

...

"Wha-? Who wrote this software?!" Chief's voice echoed above on the viewing balcony.

"(Heh, figures...)"

"W-What's going on, _herr_ Baker?" Eugen asked as she reached the edge of the pool with Iowa. "What's wrong with her propulsion?"

But before Baker could answer, the radio went of again.

" _Baker, we have to cut this short now. We completely forgot to take the fuel into consideration, and we can't afford to spend it as we please. We'll send down the cranes to retrieve the riggings, so stand by for a while._ "

"Wait, it was the fuel?" Iowa said, with a bit of a worrying look. "Aaaw, crap... That's not good."

"Huh, why, what's wrong?" Eugen asked.

"Well", Baker said, "as you might've figured out, we were sent out on this journey rather... Hastily, so we weren't provided with much resources to work with. And, well, we've been on this boat for two weeks, and... We're pretty low on fuel at the moment."

"Ah, then does that mean... That we'll get stranded somewhere?!"

"Oh, no, nothing like that", Baker replied, "we were already planning to refill our fuel cans around this time. But... Now we don't have enough to refill your riggings now, so we'll have to push the rest of these tests for another day."

"Oh, I see..."

At that point, the cranes dropped their hooks by the two ship girls.

"Hey, can you two attach the hooks on one another, please!?" Able's voice echoed from above.

"Ah, okay!" Eugen replied.

Eugen first took the hooks and placed them on Iowa, after which Iowa did the vice versa. Then they both disconnected the riggings from their waists, and let the hooks carry them away up in the ceiling.

"...Huh, it really comes off easily now", Eugen mumbled.

"Hm, I know, right?" Iowa replied.

 _GROOOWL!_

"...Oh yeah, you haven't eaten anything this entire time", Baker noticed, looking at Eugen.

"Huh? What makes you say tha-?"

 _GROOOOOWL!_

"...Wait, that was _me_?!"

"Oh, now that I think about it, none of us have eaten anything since breakfast", Iowa noted.

"Well, I think this is a good time for us to go and get some grub. We still have about..." Baker took out a his phone to look at the time. "Two hours before we'll reach the Atoll."

"Uuhm, but, _herr_ Baker. I'm not really a human or anything, so do I really need to eat like one?"

The question made Baker silent for a while.

"...W-Well, we wondered about that with Iowa as well, but as it turned out, that's one more thing you have to deal with in that form. And, honestly, I wouldn't say that it's a bad thing."

"I see", Eugen mumbled.

"Although, we don't have much to offer, I hope we can provide something exquisite enough for you", Baker said as he began to climb up the stairs.

"Well, at this point, everything would be pretty exquisite for her", Iowa noted, following the man.

And meekly, Eugen followed them, kind of excited to see what this "grub" is like. But as she climbed, she looked up, and happened to come across a slight chance of revenge. And she decided to take it.

"Aah, so yours are _schwarz_ , I see", Eugen said, with some fake chuckling thrown into the mix.

Taking note of the tone, Iowa realized what this was about, but decided to keep her hands on the railing to keep balance instead.

"Hm? Did you say something, Oigen?" Baker asked, stopping for a while.

"Ooh, nothing, _herr_ Baker", Eugen replied, with a slight grin on her face.

"Heh, touché..." Iowa mumbled, with a slight grin of her own.

* * *

Chapter 3 Afterword: (20/8/2016)

Huh. This chapter still ended up setting up everything else and we didn't even reach the Atoll yet.

Well, the next chapter is definitely going to take place on the Atoll, and we'll finally get some more ship girls in the mix. :)

See you then.


	4. Chapter 4: The Bikini Atoll

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: The Bikini Atoll**

* * *

"...Uuhm, what did you put in these sandwiches, Able?" Baker asked.

"Well, I _think_ I only put ham, cheese and some fried eggs", Able replied, as the two of them could only watch as the German girl's eyes were flowing with tears as she savored one of the slices.

"W-W-What is this?! It's so _wunderbar_!"

The siblings eventually turned their attention to the blondie, with an extremely troubled look on their faces. Iowa seemed to get the reason behind this weird look of theirs.

"Ah, no need to worry, I can relate to that", Iowa whispered, making the two somewhat relieved to hear that the other ship girl didn't find this reaction as worrying.

"Hmm... Even though I'd like to say 'have as much as you want', this is really as much as we can afford for dinner right now, so please try to keep your appetite modest", Baker said, as the German girl was about to take another slice.

The girl froze and looked at Baker with a questioning, almost heartbroken gaze, as if asking whether he meant that she couldn't consume anymore of these wonderful things.

"Urgh... H-However, I'm not that hungry, so you can have my second slice if you want", Baker mumbled, lighting up Eugen's face again as she took and began to nibble on another sandwich slice.

"(What a nice guy)", Iowa and Able thought as they gave a slight grin to themselves.

"Ahem, so, since we're this close to the Bikini Atoll, I think we should go over what we are planning to do until dusk. Oigen, this was planned with the assumption that you would be brought back, so we'll need your help on this."

"Hmh?" Eugen sounded as she heard this, putting the slice away for a moment so she could answer. "Shuu, yuu ca cont mi-"

But with her mouth full of bread, she accidentally swallowed some of it the wrong way, making her cough some of it out back on her plate. Seeing her agony, Able began to pat Eugen on the back to help with the cough.

"Uum, Baker... Thinking about the future, I think you should probably tell about these kind of things before letting anyone like us eat for the first time."

"Y-Yeah, losing a ship girl like this would be pretty embarrassing..."

"...Wait, a 'ship girl'?"

"Hm? What, what else should I call you?"

"Huh? ...Uum, well, for example... Okay, I got nothing."

"Yeah, pretty easy to get, huh?"

After a while, Eugen managed to clear her throat.

"Okay, there you go", Able said as she patted her a few more times. "Now be sure that you don't talk with your mouth full next time, okay? Here, have some water."

" _Danke_..." Eugen said, taking the glass and drinking it empty in one go. "Ueeh, that was awful..."

Heh, we've been pretty lucky with this whole thing so far, Baker thought to himself. Both of these girls have taken this situation pretty well and it looks like we can get along just fine... But, should we really start with the Japanese ships once we get to the Atoll? Well, there _are_ only two of them, Nagato and... Sakawa, was it?

But, this Nagato... If this works, can we really convince someone like her, a Japanese battleship, to help us? Or even tag along...

* * *

Had it known the concept of emotions, it would've probably thought that it was really excited. After so long time, it can finally start adding the finishing touches to its ultimate plan.

Every suitable vessel has been marked. Every suitable vessel has been observed. Every suitable vessel has something that could be used to help it ensure that they'll listen.

After intense attempts of trial and error, it had finally worked out the perfect recipe for its conduit. And now that it knew the perfect recipe, it could ensure that it could rule out the individual errors out of its calculations. Having multiple different minds working on one thing proved to be really difficult before, so after it managed to put them together in one nice little package, things got rolling quite neatly.

Well, not as neatly as before, when it had even more of these little things to help it find out the perfect recipe. It clearly wasn't its fault though, it was quite occupied when this terrible incident happened. But where could those lost ones be now, and how did they plan to get back? It's not like it could try and find them as it pleases, but only thing it could do now is try. Poor little things, they must be so scared right now, why couldn't it procure this recipe sooner...

The tentacles swept gently across a row of capsules, checking up on its fruits of labor. The number of them matched the assumption. It knew that soon it'll be ready to put its plan into motion.

Yes... Very, very soon...

* * *

The Bikini Atoll.

The site of the Operation Crossroads, the resting place of a handful of warships, and the incidental namesake of modern women swimwear.

It had been a long while since any of the original inhabitants had been living on any of its islands, with the only noteworthy thing that isn't sunk around there being a small resort on the Bikini Island, mostly inhabited by its staff.

So basically, this should've been the perfect place to conduct their operations without drawing much, if any attention from the outsiders. However...

* * *

"...So let me get this straight", a resort representative called out from his boat, halted next to the small boat, little bigger than a yacht. "You've come all this way from the US... To test out experimental remote controlled mini submarines... While _also_ testing out experimental floating devices designed like footwear... To take underwater pictures of sunken warships... All in behalf of the FBI?"

"...Uum, y-yes", Baker replied, trying to keep as straight face as possible. "You _have_ received the emails, right? Or do you need to see my sister's credentials as well?"

"Oh, no, everything's fine, but... Are you people really planning to spend your whole week like that? And why the hell would the FBI even... You know, just do as you please..." the man said as he turned his motorboat back on. "Ah, but don't you dare loot anything with those subs! We'll be watching you lot!"

And after some steady acceleration, the man eventually sped off towards the Bikini Island, peeking out in the distance.

"...I don't think that's how this conversation was supposed to go, bro", Able said as she inched next to her brother.

"...Can you handle this, Able? I have a call to make", Baker said as he made his towards nearby ladders, his eyes fixated on the briefing cabin.

"Uuhm, _Fräulein_ Able..." Eugen said, as she and Iowa walked up to Able, both with small, yellow submarines in their hands. "Weren't we supposed to bring back these Naga-toe and Sack-awa next?"

"Yes, we were, and we _will_... At some point", Able turned around, with a slightly worried expression. "However! Based on that man's attitude, and the fact that we had to fill out the blanks like this, I don't think that resort has any idea what we are about to do here. Also, I'm fairly certain that we requested a month, not a _week_ to reside on this atoll."

"Well, based on the looks your bigwigs gave us back then", Iowa said, reminiscing something awkward by the look of it, "I think it's a miracle that they even ended up reserving this much."

"Uwaaah... So, what was that about 'floating devices'?"

"Ah, that's just was our... Improvised explanation about you two. If they are actually going to keep an eye on us through drones or something, we needed to make sure they wouldn't freak out in case they happen to spot you out there", Able said as she took out the keys of the water scooter, giving a sigh. "For now, I guess all we can do is to scout the general area with th" _Testing, testing, one, two, three!_ "

Eugen jolted out of surprise, looking frantically around her to see where this sudden voice had came from.

"Hm, what's wrong, Oigen?" Able asked, not seemingly fazed by this sudden voice.

"Huh?! J-Just now, I thought I heard someone say-"

" _Prinz Eugen, if ya hear me, say hi!_ "

Now looking around even more frantically with a confused look on her face, Iowa eventually realized what this sudden frenzy was about.

"Ah, Oigen, hold your left hand on your ear and say something."

"Huh?" Eugen sounded, eventually putting the little sub under her right arm and raising her left hand slowly on her ear. "Like this?"

" _Ah, it works. Hello there!_ " the voice called out again out of nowhere. " _Sorry if we scared ya, this took longer than we expected._ "

After getting the impression that this was more or less normal, Eugen eventually calmed down, now realizing that she had actually heard this voice before.

"Wait... You're that voice from the dock", Eugen said, still keeping her hand on her left ear.

" _Yeah, that's right! I'm the one responsible for communications on this trip! Just wanted to make sure that your radio works as intended, so... I guess I'll smell ya later then. Peace!_ "

Waiting for a while to hear if there was anything else, Eugen eventually took her hand of her ear, sharing a puzzled look with the other two.

"...Ah, that's one of the handier features that the girls found out about the riggings", Iowa said, realizing that the German girl must've been pretty confused at this point. "They realized that if they go and reset the radios aboard the projections, we can communicate with them like this, even if we don't have the riggings on like now. And also", Iowa put her left hand on her ear, "even the two of us can communicate like this when we're apart from each other, see?"

" _...Uum, I knew we boasted about it, but... That's actually still a work in progress. We're currently setting all that up aboard your projections, so for now you can only communicate with either us fairies or the walkie-talkies. Uuhm, p-peace..._ "

"... _Fräulein_ Iowa, I didn't really hear anything in my head like I did with that-"

"N-Never mind..." Iowa said with a rather embarrassed look, as she made her way towards a ladder leading down to the water level. "...So, Nagato was somewhere around there, right?"

"Ah, yes", Able noted as she followed the blondie. "But... Just to be sure, we should just do some recon on the sea floor for now, and merely check where these two ships are."

"Guuh... And here I thought we were all set and just waiting for the go..." Iowa mumbled.

"Me too..."

Eventually all three of them had made down to the water level, with Able riding the water scooter. The two ship girls then placed the submarines on water, with the machines now gently floating on its surface. The two girls then made sure that the cables connected to the subs were uncoiling themselves freely from the reels placed on the back of the ship girls.

"Okay, you already know how this works, Iowa", Able said as she passed the blondie a tabloid, "so that leaves me with the controls of this one, while you keep track of the cable, Oigen."

"Gotcha! Later, taters!" Iowa said as she turned around and began to maneuver her sub as she skated forward.

"I'll do my best", Eugen said, as the other two turned around and began to move to the opposite direction, as their boat was placed to the approximate middle point between their shipwrecks of the day. "...So, why didn't you just went alone, _Fräulein_ Able? Since you know how this works and all."

"Well, if that sub gets stuck and we have to pull it back, there's no way I could pull it back up on my own. And even if I could, chances are that I would just end up... Well, you know, falling over with this scooter."

"Ah, I see..."

"Also, Iowa seemed to be able to see you before we brought you back, so with you here, we could also get a general idea where to look for this Sakawa's soul when we'll actually start with this whole ordeal."

"Hmm, makes sense, I guess... Uum, based on that map we used, there seemed to be lot of _Fräulein_ Iowa's _kamerad_ down there as well. So, I've been wondering... Why are we starting with ships that were on _my_ side?"

"Aah... Well, that seemed to be Iowa's wish or something. She apparently wants to test the turrets that this Nagato is carrying."

"...Huh? That's it?"

"From what I heard, yes."

"But her own firepower seemed to be so _wunderbar_ already."

"Well, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."

"...Uuhm, _kannst du das wiederholen_?"

"Hm? What?"

"What grass?"

"Oh, wait, that's, uuuhm... It's a figure of speech."

"...I-I see."

* * *

It was making its rounds again, as usual. So far, everything seemed to be just fine, except for that one vessel that seemed to had been moved from its usual resting place. Maybe it was finally moved for a maintenance? Or maybe it tumbled over and ended up somewhere deeper into the ocean? Well, the condition isn't what's important in the first place, all it needs that the vessel is somewhere where it could find it when the time is right.

After its quick search around the area seemed to be fruitless, it decided to come back later and head for the next area.

...Everything seemed to be just fine. The clump of vessels was still there like it has been dozens of times before.

Now, to make sure that the vessels are still there as they are supposed to be...

* * *

Nagato's mind was swiftly brought back from the blankness, as she noticed something moving in the corner of her eye. She quickly got up, but as she glanced over the area, all she noticed were the greyish tentacles, sweeping across her hull.

"(Ah, it's just these things again)", she thought to herself. "(Why do I still get surprised by these? I should know better by now...)"

Slowly, Nagato sat back down again, hoping that she could just empty out her mind again as soon as possible, so she wouldn't end up thinking much about... Well, _anything_ at this point.

But as she was still trying to get comfortable with the tentacles around, she suddenly noticed something else approaching her from above.

"(...Hm? Another diver? ...Wait, no, that shape doesn't look like one. Maybe a fish?)"

She didn't really pay that much attention to the odd thing, but as it was slowly approaching her, she couldn't help but take another look at it.

"(...Huh. It's coming right towards me... Haah, maybe I should just move out of its way... Not that it makes any difference...)"

Nagato slowly got back up, and began to move out of this odd thing's way. However, as she had moved a couple of steps away, she looked back to the thing, but noticed that the odd thing was still coming her way.

"(W-Wait, that's odd... Why is it still coming towards me? And that shape... It's not a fish either.)"

The odd thing suddenly stopped about a meter away from her, just staying there as if looking at her. With her interest caught like never before since her sinking, Nagato couldn't help but approach the hazy thing in front of her. But as she did, some of the tentacles swept across her hull, accidentally hitting her knees and making her fall towards the odd thing.

And suddenly, she felt something sting on her left shoulder.

* * *

"...Huh?" Iowa sounded, as the tabloid showed the submarine thrust out a capsule on what she assumed to be Nagato's soul. "Wait, wha-?! I didn't even press anything!"

She then tried to press every button on the tabloid to retract the capsule, but it didn't seem to do anything as the capsule began to glow with the greenish tint.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Iowa cried out, as the sub eventually let go off the capsule, now completely out of her reach. Confused by all this, Iowa could only put her left hand on her ear. "G-Girls, get the chief on the line, now!"

...

" _Yeah? Is there a problem, Iowa?_ "

"Chief, the sub just thrusted out its capsule even though I didn't press anything! What's going on?!"

" _...Uuhm, well, we thought that it would save time to automate that mechanism, since the controls might still be janky and all. We programmed it to react the moment it detects a soul in its immediate vicinity._ "

"Why would you do something like that?!"

" _Huh, why? But, I just told you... Wait, what's the problem here exactly? Did you find that Nagato or not?_ "

"Well, I did, and _that's_ the problem! We just changed our plans and were only meant to... Why didn't you tell us about that feature?!"

" _Wait, what do you mean you changed your-?_ "

During all this time, Iowa failed to notice the green glow beneath the waves that kept rapidly brighter and brighter as it got closer and closer to the surface. And by the time the discussion had gotten to this point, the remaining words of the chief were obscured by the sound of a splash, as a huge glowing orb popped out from the sea. The splash made the startled Iowa jump for a safe distance, making her stare at the orb with a look of confusion.

Eventually, the orb's light began to diminish bit by bit, slowly revealing the figure that Iowa had just saw stung through the submarine's camera.

And soon, the orb had disappeared altogether, and the figure dropped down, tumbling on the water's surface.

She was there.

As the reel on her back began to reel the submarine back in, - most likely another automated feature - Iowa could only stare at the dark-haired ship girl coughing up in front of her.

"(Aaaaw, crap... W-Well, now that it has come to this, maybe I should just introduce myself...)"

"Uum... H-Hello there, Nagato", Iowa walked up to the girl and reached out her hand. "My name is Io-"

Realizing that someone had just said her name as if to greet her, Nagato's gaze swiftly raised to meet the stranger.

"(Wha-?! An American ship?!)"

Rather clumsily, Nagato raised her right hand, and tried to plunge a punch towards this stranger's general direction. Taken aback by this sudden behavior, Iowa somehow managed jumped out of the way in time. Although, as she looked at Nagato again, it looked like that punch would've missed her anyway.

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy there", Iowa tried to calm down the black-haired girl, "I'm not gonna hurt you or anything."

Still panting a bit, Nagato slowly stood up and faced towards the blondie.

"Y-You... Did you do this to me?" Nagato snarled, trying to look intimidating as she slumped forward. "How... How can you see me?! How do you know my name?! ...Wait, could it be... Are _you_ the one behind those tentacles too?!"

"I said take it easy! Just hear me out before you... W-Wait, tentacles?"

* * *

...It's gone. It's just gone. It vanished just like that.

Why? Why is it gone?! **Why is the vessel gone?!**

The tentacles felt it. It was there. Its confinement is still there, yet the vessel itself is not there anymore.

How could this be, where could've it just gone? It couldn't have just gone by accident, the tentacles were right beside it.

...Wait, what is that? That... Thing. It was just beside the vessel before it vanished.

...Hold it. There's _another_ one. And it's going right towards another vessel... What is this? What is this?! **What is this?!**

It couldn't understand the situation. The odd disappearances of two vessels in such a short period of time. These odd things currently swimming among its clump of vessels. Nothing like this had ever happened before, why is this happening now of all times? It's as if something tries to make it harder for it to reach its goal on purpose.

...And then, something finally occurred to it. Maybe something _is_ trying to make it harder for it to reach its goal on purpose.

But... How? How would anything know about its plans? How could've its plans leaked out like that? How? How?! **How?!**

And then, something else occurred to it. If there are even more of those strange things, taking away more of its... No, it cannot allow it! Those are _its_ vessels! Those are _not_ for anything else! Those _cannot_ fall into the wrong hands!

...Those need to be taken away. **Now!**

* * *

"No, I'm telling you, he literally said 'don't you dare loot anything'. Just what did you tell them when you made that reservation?" Baker talked on the phone with one of his co-workers back home. "...Wait, you only told them that representatives from the FBI are going to visit? That's it? ...Well, what do you think we should say to these people then? ...Wha-? No, this is _not_ the kind of a situation where I could just 'think of something'! We're basically about to loot an entire fleet worth of World War history here! ...Speaking of which, why did you only reserve _one_ week for us?!"

While his co-worker attempted to explain these decisions by first seeing whether or not that whole endeavor actually takes off, Baker noticed that the phone's sound began to gradually distort the longer his co-worker talked.

"Uum, I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I didn't quite catch that... Hello, can you repeat that? I'm getting some really bad reception on my end right no-"

But suddenly, among the static that had taken over the phone, Baker suddenly heard something else along with it. A sound like a muffled whale, one overcome by raging bloodlust.

"...Uuhm, h-hello. I-I don't know what you're trying to do, but this isn't funny at-"

 _BOOOOOOOOOOOO-!_

* * *

A sound like muffled thunder echoed throughout the whole area. However, instead of fading out shortly afterwards, the sound just kept echoing, even getting a bit louder as it went on. And after a while, even the surroundings began to show some odd behavior, as the waves began to get gradually higher, and the light somehow began to diminish despite the nearly cloudless, sunny skies.

Able and Eugen had just reached Sakawa's wreck as the sound had began to echo throughout the area.

"W-What is this?! Isn't this the sound of a Fog Tunnel?!" Able wailed, trying to keep her balance on the scooter. "But, something's not right, I'm not seeing fog anywhere. And isn't this more like humming than thundering?"

As she frantically looked around, Able eventually noticed that Eugen had suddenly slumped on her knees, even more overwhelmed by this sudden phenomena.

"Ah, Oigen, what happened?!" Able called out as she drove next to the German girl. "Are you alright?!"

"...T-This feeling..." Eugen said, with her voice trembling. "It feels like... I-It feels just like when I was back by that island... In my solitude..."

"Huh, w-what?" Able sounded, not knowing what to make of this claim.

* * *

As the boat was rocking back and forth, so was the arsenal. Even though every contraption was fastened pretty securely around the workshop, the fairies still had quite hard time to secure the smaller tools, now scattered across the floors.

Among the chaos, the arsenal's speakers had turned on. But instead of broadcasting the confusion ensuing in the announcement booth, the speakers blasted out a noise like a bloodlusting whale, crying out among the indescribable static.

"Wait, isn't that...? Chief!" the earlier grumpy one shouted over the noise. "This sound, this feeling! Does this mean...?!"

"...Yes. It has begun!" Chief shouted out as she ran towards the door leading out of the arsenal.

* * *

" _Oi_ , _kinpatsu_ , what's the meaning of this?!" Nagato shouted out over the noise, while both of the ship girls had fallen down on their knees. "Is this your attempt to intimidate me?! Because it's not worki-!"

"No, I was just about to ask the same thing, this is not my doing!" Iowa said, overwhelmed by the familiar, displeasing feeling back from her harbor in Los Angeles. And as Iowa happened to look down on the water, her eyes widened, as she spotted something alarming beneath the surface, prompting her to act fast. Although she had surprisingly hard time with it, Iowa eventually managed to force herself back up. "N-Nagato! I understand that you must be really confused right now, but we can't stay here, we have to move out!"

"Well of course I'm confused! Tell me what's going on this inst-"

Letting the feeling overwhelm her briefly, Nagato's gaze dropped down out of pressure. And that's when she noticed that they really didn't have time to waste like this, as the water beneath them was now infested with greyish, oozing tentacles, some of them slowly approaching the two.

"Able, Iowa, Oigen!" Baker's megaphone filtered voice suddenly echoed from the boat. "Get back to the boat this instant, it has started!"

With little to no time to react, Nagato soon found herself being dragged towards this sudden call by the strange American ship, barely being able to maintain her balance as she was dragged on with such speed. For a brief moment, she would've wanted to pull away her hand from this weird blondie's grip, but after reconsidering the situation, Nagato eventually decided to let this play out and push all of her efforts on maintaining her balance.

* * *

Even though the situation did look quite desperate for the time, all of the girls surprisingly managed to reach and climb aboard the boat without any issues. But even more surprisingly, they even managed to recover the submarines as well, though the tentacles did leave their mark in a form of thick, slimy layer of ooze.

The waters beneath the boat were completely infested by these strange tentacles now, but the things seemed to be too preoccupied to do anything with the boat, with the few tentacles that were following the girls just halting their slow pursuit the moment the girls got back on their ship.

With everyone securely on board, the fairies were about to put the pedal to the metal and aim for the Bikini Island, until something... Rather unexpected happened.

 _-OOOOOOOOoooooooom!_

...The sound vanished. And after a while, the sea calmed down and the world around them regained its matching bright colors. And after gathering all of her courage, Iowa decided to peek over the board for the sight of the tentacles.

* * *

"...The... They're gone?"

"Wait, really?" Baker said as she joined Iowa by the fence. "...You're right, they're gone! But, how? The waters were basically filled with them just a moment ago."

"Who knows, I'm just glad they are gone", Iowa said as she slumped exhausted on the deck, rejoicing her feeling of freedom that she hadn't really stopped to appreciate until now. "Haaah... That was scary..."

"...By the way, Iowa?" Baker said with a slightly worried tone.

"Hm? Yes?"

"Now that we have some time for a breather... Is that who I think she is?"

Initially a bit oblivious what he meant, Iowa slowly turned around towards everyone else. But as she saw a dark-haired girl approaching her, Iowa finally realized that she had just brought this hostile ship girl on board without any second thoughts.

"...You know, part of me really wants to give you some piece of its mind for dragging me out there like that", Nagato said as she kneeled in front of the blondie, with a bit of intimidating look on her face. "But, I believe what you did there was more than necessary, so you have my thanks... However", she got back up and faced towards Baker and the others with the same intensity in her eyes, intimidating every single soul within her field of view, "that still leaves quite a number questions for me! Just who are you people, what did you do to me?! And what just happened here?!"

"Uwaaah, c-calm down _Fräulein_ Nagato, t-there's no need to talk like that!" Eugen tried to calm the Japanese ship down, catching Nagato's attention.

Knowing her name without even having a chance to tell them, Nagato couldn't help but be wary of these strange people, looking at them with deep doubt in her eyes. But as she kept staring at this odd looking girl in particular, she eventually realized something.

"Hm? Hold on", Nagato suddenly dropped her intimidating demeanor. "You... You're that one cruiser that was not a Japanese... But neither looked like an American... From that time..."

"Huh?" Eugen sounded, not expecting that she would've recognized her. "Ah, _j-ja_. My name is Prinz Eugen, a cruiser from the _Kriegsmarine_ in _Deutschland_. Apparently we were on the same side back in the day..."

" _Doitsu Rando..._? Germany? Why was a German ship like you taking part in all of that back then...?" Nagato wondered out loud. And when she eventually remembered the current situation again, her eyes redeemed some of her intimidating glare. "Or more importantly, why are the two of us here right _now_? To have someone like you and _her_ in the same place like this..." Nagato glanced briefly over Iowa, who had just gotten back up. "I'd like to hear a proper explanation for all of this."

"...Uum, I-I might just be the guy you're looking for then", Baker walked forward a bit, making Nagato's wary gaze jump onto him almost instantly. But even though she still looked quite intimidating, talking with Eugen seemed to had calmed her down quite a bit. "Ahem, let me introduce ourselves. My name is Baker, and that over there is my sister Able. We're kind of-"

Baker noticed how the dark-haired girl's gaze suddenly became even more intense.

"Not! Having _any_ affiliation to the Baker and Able that you are familiar with", Baker tried to explain to her, trying to make as few motions as possible to not trigger the battleship even slightly. "Also, just to be perfectly clear... Me, my sister, and that blondie over there, are from the America-But!" Baker exclaimed, as Nagato took one step towards him. And after his heart finally stopped beating like crazy, Baker continued. "...We. Are not. In a war anymore. That conflict was resolved decades ago... A-Although, I think you might've figured out as much already... Since, you know, you were down there, among other ships from the US Navy. And, I mean, why else would you end like that with a bunch of your enemies? It probably would've made much more sense if there were ships only from your side back then, but the US Navy couldn't have been that stupid to intentionally sink their own ships like that if they would've been still needed, so the only reasonable explanation would've been that... Uuhm..."

At this point, Baker had seen Nagato's gaze turn from intimidating to that of resentment, and eventually to that of just pure confusion. Now her eyes just stared at him, with a look that could've been easily summed up with a phrase: "Uuuhm... Are you going somewhere with this, or...?"

And it certainly didn't help Baker to see that this look was mutually evident with Eugen, Iowa, and even with his sister as well.

"...What?! I can't help it, she's just so scary! I mean, just _look_ at her!"

Even though Nagato _did_ have a slight intention to look as intimidating as possible out of doubt, for someone to actually say an observation like that out loud brought up a bit mixed feelings for her.

"Y-You're not supposed to say those kind of things out loud!" Nagato ended up looking away from Baker, with quite an embarrassed look on her face now. But after a while, she calmed down, and eventually looked back up to Baker, and Able as well. "Hmm... Honestly, I'd like to just think that you're just trying to confuse me and lull me into a false sense of security or something, but... Somehow I feel that's just not the case."

"...Uuuhm, t-thanks?" Baker tried to reply.

"Wait, no, that wasn't meant to be a... Uugh, never mind..." Nagato sighed, but eventually looked back to Baker with a more serious look on her face. Even though the intimidation wasn't really present anymore, she still seemed to have that strange air of someone with authority about her. "So, mister... Baker, I'd like to ask you again. What is going on here exactly? Why am I suddenly up on the surface like this? And what just happened in the ocean?"

"Well, we might be able to answer _some_ of those questions, but as for what just happened... Wait, what's this?"

It took her a while, but Nagato eventually realized that not just Baker, but everyone on the deck were looking at her with confused look on their faces. And as she looked around her, she noticed why.

"Huh, what is _this_?!" Nagato cried out, as she noticed something like brightly glowing dust gathering around her like a halo.

"Wait, isn't this... That phase two thing?" Able said, as she looked on as the halo was intensifying. "Then, does that mean...?"

Looking at each other for a brief moment, Able and Iowa ran to the railing that faced towards Nagato's wreck, and surely enough, even if it was dim, the two could spot a slight glow coming from the bottom of the atoll.

"Wait, but, the tentacles were just... They didn't do anything to her hull?" Iowa said with a bewildered look.

"A-Apparently not?" Able noted, a bit bewildered herself.

" _Oi_ , what are you two mumbling about over there?!" Nagato cried out again. "Am I supposed to be worried or wh-AAH!"

The halo flashed even brighter, prompting everyone to cover their eyes, even if some of them had accidentally looked right into it. And while everyone was adjusting their eyes to their surroundings again, they could hear the distinct clicking of a rigging emanating from where the dark-haired girl was standing.

"(...Oh, hang on)", Iowa just realized something. "(Isn't this my chance to see those 'forbidden' turrets of hers? W-Well, not that they would be that glorious sight at the moment, but at least I could now see what they will _kinda_ look like after-!)"

...The light had faded. The vision was clear. And the rigging was promptly covered in oozing, foul-smelling slime.

"...Really, what _is_ this?" Nagato said, sounding extremely confused as she stood still, seemingly trying to ignore what was currently hanging from her back. Which didn't seem to work as soon as she attempted to calm herself by taking a deep breath. Through her nose.

"Uum, Oigen, could you please take her to the arsenal?" Baker quickly asked as he saw the battleship's clear discomfort of this situation.

" _Verstanden_ ", Eugen quickly replied as she saw the battleship's rapidly growing willingness to throw her rigging overboard. "This way, _Fräulein_."

With hasty steps, the two ship girls quickly made their way towards the arsenal and Baker began to make his way towards the briefing cabin.

...

"...So", Able said as she and Iowa were only ones on the deck, "you still want to try out her turrets or what?"

"Huh?! How did you know about...? Not really..."

"Heh, figures", Able gave out a bit of a grin, before the sound of the engine suddenly echoed throughout the ship, and they began to move after a slight twitch. It was then that the two took note of the sun, or what was left of it in the sky.

"Ah, this is bad, we should've aimed for the dry land the moment we had a chance", Able said, looking as the sky was gradually losing its bright blue colors.

"Yeah", Iowa concurred. "Even if we have all those radars on board, I can't help but feel uneasy when staring into the dark depths of the night waters. And now we know that those things could pop back in any moment."

"...I think we should join Baker in the cabin."

"I agree."

And as the darkness fell, the small boat, little bigger than a yacht, slowly made its way towards the lights of the Bikini Island.

* * *

Chapter 4 Afterword: (23/8/2016)

Well, this is going surprisingly smoothly. I hope I get as far as I could with this sudden burst of inspiration as possible.

Next up, the first battle of our small boat and its little ship girls.

See ya then.


	5. Chapter 5: The First Encounter

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The First Encounter**

* * *

...No. This is all wrong. This is not how this was supposed to go. This is all wrong!

It wasn't ready. It wasn't ready at all. There was supposed to be more time. This is not how it was supposed to work at all!

* * *

"And that's why we are here in the Bikini Atoll, but we had to retreat to this island for now after... Well, whatever just happened back then", Baker concluded, facing towards the troubled looking Nagato.

After the odd incident, the day had slowly turned into night and the ship was now docked by the Bikini Island's dock. And in the briefing cabin, all of the ship girls and scientists had gathered around to brief their newest addition, and get some sense in the odd spectacle that had just occurred three hours earlier.

"...To be honest, if it were just your words, I would've just labeled you as a madman halfway through this briefing. However..." Nagato looked down on the table, glancing over the odd little humanoid thing sitting on an overturned coffee cup, the one that everyone else kept calling the Chief. "There are just so many things that have been even stranger on this ship, that I simply cannot ignore all of this... But, what happens now then? And what _did_ happen with those tentacles earlier? Even though I mentioned that I've seen them pretty often, I had never seen them in those kind of numbers before."

"Me neither", Iowa added, raising her hand, "I've always just seen like dozen of them at once, never a hundred of them."

Not wanting to reminisce about those things that much, Eugen agreed with the notion by a mere nod.

"W-Well, even we're not sure what that-" Baker was about to say, when his talk was cut short by sudden bursts of low buzzing noises. And after a while, everyone began to look around to pinpoint the source, until they eventually noticed it coming from the humanoid sitting on the table.

"Uum, Chief.." Able said, catching the fairy's attention, incidentally ceasing the buzzing sounds as the fairy stopped talking. "Your translator turned off again."

A bit surprised, the Chief began to search through her jacket's left pocket, until she found a small switch. She turned it back on.

"Ahem", Chief's voice began to emanate as if transmitted through a speaker, "so as I was saying... I believe that thing might've finally put its plan into motion. As far as we've seen, this is the first time that those tentacles have appeared in the physical plane like this. And we're talking about forces that have kept themselves hidden for god knows how long, so there's no way they would just make that kind of a debut for no reason."

"...Uum, _Fräulein_ Able, what do planes have to do with this?" Eugen whispered, looking a bit confused.

"Aah, that's just some physics jargon, she doesn't mean a literal airplane", Able tried to clarify as she kept tapping on a laptop that was connected to the two subs through cables.

"...However", Chief continued, "the fact that we managed to secure Nagato's rigging that easily still bothers me. I find it hard to believe that those things would've only came here to scare us off and smear the atoll in ooze, so,I asked the girls to take our recon plane and do some scanning on the wreckage site to see if we can spot any other changes."

Nagato let out a bit of a wistful grunt, as the Chief mentioned the phrase "wreckage site". But before anyone even managed to utter anything else, another fairy entered the cabin while dragging a normal sized paper behind her. She swiftly jumped up to the table, and went straight to the Chief, laying down the paper while making buzzing sounds in a distressed tone.

"Okay, okay, calm down, let's see what you have here..." Chief said, as she walked on the paper.

The paper seemed to be containing snapshots of a rough 3D model from different angles. And after glancing them through, a slight look of disbelief slowly crawled on the Chief's face, until it slowly turned into a look of frustration.

"...I'm not sure what I was expecting, but... This looks about right. _Too_ right."

" _Was_ , what's wrong?" Eugen asked, making Chief look at the German girl, then around the table at everyone else, and eventually walking off the paper.

"Everyone, have a look at this", Chief said, pointing towards the paper. Aside from Able, everyone got up to glance over the paper. "This is a three-dimensional model, based on the scanner feed from our recon plane, of the wreckage site on this atoll. One odd bump on this surface equals one shipwreck. Now, can you count all the bumps in these pictures for me?"

"...Uum, Chief" Iowa said, after glancing over all of the snapshots, "I don't really see any... 'Odd bumps' on these pics."

"Precisely."

The implication took a while to hit.

"Wait, are you suggesting that...?" Nagato looked at the Chief with disbelief. "No, no, wait, this can't be right, I don't remember seeing anyone being salvaged after Crossroads. There's no way they could've just vanished like that, I would've noticed that."

The other battleship didn't seem to take the claim any better.

"Y-Yeah, don't joke about it like that, Chief! I might've really looked forward to meet Nagato, but I didn't mean that I _wasn't_ looking forward to meet my allies that came before me! I mean, I have so many questions to Arkansas about her battles in both of the World Wars, there's no way they all could've been just swept away like that!""

Chief walked on the paper again, stopping by a certain snapshot.

"This odd crater here", Chief tapped her foot on the snapshot, "is where _you_ were, Nagato. Trust me, I've spent an entire week looking at the map of this area to plan out our operation here... I don't know how, but it seems like those tentacles have swept away every single shipwreck on this entire atoll."

"...Uum, rather than swept away", Able suddenly said, reaching out to a cable attached to the projector, "I'd say it was more like... Dragged away."

Before anyone could ask what she meant, the projector suddenly flashed, changing its view to that of Able's laptop. And the first thing that came into view was a paused video of a shipwreck.

"This was taken from my and Oigen's sub when we had just reached Sakawa", Able noted, making Nagato raise her head and face towards the canvas. And even Iowa calmed down a bit, as she slowly sat down and focused on the image on the screen. "I didn't really notice this while all that humming was going on but... Well, just have a look."

The video started.

The submarine slowly sways back and forth, with the sunken light cruiser barely staying within the field of view. The sub then slowly begins to move forward towards the ship...

 _BOOOOOOOOOOOO-!_

A sound like muffled... No, humming thunder begins to emanate from the video feed. Despite being recorded underwater, the sound seemed to be as clear as it was on the surface.

The water suddenly begins to turn greyer, and the screen goes hazy for a brief moment. But during these few hazy seconds, a pack of tentacles began to materialize around the sunken cruiser, soon blocking view from everything beyond the cruiser.

The sub had stopped, just looking on this peculiar sight, as the tentacles slowly begin to wrap around this shipwreck. And after the ship was completely covered in the gray, oozing mass, the tentacles slowly picked the wreck up from the seafloor, and plunged it straight into a...

...

"...W-Wait, Able, can you go back a bit?" Baker suddenly asked, making Able pause the video. "I don't think I saw that last bit right, I want to make sure."

Knowing exactly what Baker was talking about, Able rewinded the video right to the point when the tentacles were right about to lift up the sunken cruiser. She then resumed the video again.

...

...

"...Was... Was that an underwater _Fog Tunnel_?!"

Based on the face value, that question seemed to be on everyone's minds.

The sub stayed in place for a little while longer, looking at the sight that used to include a warship, now completely overwhelmed by the multitude of tentacles, some even pushing the camera around. And then, the sub suddenly began to move backwards in high speed, away from the site.

"And that's when me and Oigen began to make our way back to this boat, and based on the fast forward, the rest was just a bunch of tentacles upon tentacles", Able concluded, taking off the plugs from the laptop and returning the projector to its previous view of Baker's laptop and his briefing material.

"...Huh. So they really are all gone now..." Iowa mumbled.

"Sakawa..." Nagato mumbled next to her, both of them leaning their heads on their hands.

"(Uwaaah, t-that must've been quite a shock to them. Not that I blame them)", Eugen thought to herself as she looked at the two disheartened battleships.

"(...Also, somehow it feels like that _Herr_ Baker and _Fräulein_ Able didn't notice Sakawa at all. Or her soul, as they would put it... But, just what was wrong with that girl? Even with all those tentacles around her, even when she was being dragged away like that, she didn't move an inch. It's like... It's as if she was dead, just lying there with no will to live.)"

* * *

That odd thing... Out of all the vessels in that clump, why was it interested in _this_ one?

The tentacles slowly crawled all over the bruised light cruiser, with the purple-haired girl that served as its soul showing no reaction whatsoever, even when the tentacles made direct contact with her.

Agano-class... Sakawa... Why was it so interested in- **?!**

And it was through this contact that the tentacles believed to have found its answer. Now inspecting the light cruiser's soul, it could feel the overflowing feelings of loneliness and fear emanating from her. Feelings so strong that they had pushed everything else, even the soul's consciousness, into a subconscious oblivion.

Is _this_ why the odd thing was interested in this? Was it also looking for a vessel like this, a one perfect for its perfect recipe?

...As it realized that this soul _was_ perfect for its conversion substance, it finally figured it out. In the wrong hands, this vessel could've been a dangerous weapon against its plan, with the overwhelming negativity providing as overwhelming source of power. That's it, that must've been the odd thing's plan, to take away this vessel and use it against it!

It was then that one of the tentacles reached out to its capsules, and brought one of them next to the light cruiser's soul, ready to swing it down on her.

Now then, this vessel shall be put to good use. Once it is ready to be deployed, it will go to that place, find that odd thing that took one of the other vessels away...

And destroy it.

The capsule swung down, soon stuck on the girl's right shoulder.

* * *

Suddenly, a sound of an alarm went off in the cabin, breaking the melancholic atmosphere that had settled in after the video.

"Huh? What is it now?!" Baker exclaimed, as everyone got up from their chairs in frenzy.

It took a while, but the Chief seemed to recognize the sound.

"Wait, isn't this...? Everyone, get down, incoming torpedo!"

"W-Wait, incoming _wha_ -?!"

The boat suddenly began to shake with a loud sound of an explosion, making every human-sized individual in the cabin fall on the floor and blacking out the cabin's lights.

And after the shaking had calmed down, everyone slowly got back up.

"What was that, enemy fire?!" Eugen exclaimed.

"It came from the port side!" Iowa shouted out, but before she even managed to reach the door, Nagato was already outside the cabin.

Now by the railing, Nagato was looking all over the immediate vicinity for any sign of odd activity. And eventually, she did spot someone or something in the distance, but she couldn't quite make out what it was with her eyes adjusted to light.

Noticing a couple of spotlights on the lower deck beneath her, Nagato suddenly began to stomp with her foot on the floor.

" _Oi_ , man the lights!" she shouted over her stomping.

Even though she had no idea whether there were anyone even near them, it didn't take long for the spotlights to appear on the water surface.

Now joined by Iowa, the two battleships had their eyes looked on towards the odd figure in the distance. And after a while, the lights finally began to move and they eventually turned towards the oddity... And they finally saw her.

A girl with a short, purple hair.

"W-Wha-?!" Iowa sounded, completely taken aback by the sight after what she had just seen on the big screen earlier. "Isn't that...? The girl from the video video we just...? Then, doesn't that make her-?!"

"Sakawa...?" Nagato muttered, her face implying that she was even less able to comprehend the sight before her.

"What, Sakawa?!" Eugen reacted as she heard the name, joining the other two outside and soon followed by everyone else. "I-It really _is_ her... But, we just saw her being dragged away by those things. How is she-?"

And then, something finally occurred to the ship girls; This wasn't a soul or anything like that. She was there, and she even had a rigging on her back.

"...That odd thing", the purple-haired girl muttered. "The smell... It comes from this boat..."

Even though the voice was faint, the ones on the boat could somewhat hear it.

"'Odd thing'? What is she talking about...?" Iowa wondered out loud. "Also, what's wrong with her voice?"

But before she could wonder anything else, she suddenly noticed what Nagato was about to do. Or, what she had basically done already, since she was halfway over the board by this point.

"Wha-? Nagato, wait!"

Nagato fell down and splashed on the water's surface, but despite the considerable drop distance, she showed no signs of pain. She slowly got back, and - oddly enough - began to walk towards the purple-haired girl. But before she had even reached the halfway there..

"Nagato, stop!" Iowa shouted, as she also dropped down to the water. "I-I have no idea how she is here right now, but we can't just walk up to her like that! She just attacked our ship!"

Finding these claims reasonable enough, Nagato halted her walk, and turned her attention from the blondie back to the cruiser.

"(Okay, the force field blocked the damage just fine, it seems)", Iowa noted to herself, as she took a look at the ship's undamaged, slightly glowing hull before walking after Nagato.

Nagato slowly turned her attention back to the light cruiser, but as she was about to speak up, the indescribable storm of emotions after seeing a fellow ship from her navy - one which she had just thought to be lost, only to suddenly turn up and attack them - rendered her incapable of uttering anything but the following words in a confused rage:

"Sakawa! What is the meaning of this?!"

"...Sakawa?" the girl eventually replied, not with a gaze of bewilderment, but of ponderment. "...Oh yeah, that is this vessel's name, was it not?"

"(Huh, v-vessel?)", Iowa and Nagato thought to themselves. And it was then when they finally noticed the eyes of this oddly behaving girl; ones without any life in them, almost like glass.

"Nagato... Iowa..." the girl chanted, making the battleships flinch for a bit, especially the blondie. Then the girl's gaze moved up towards the ship. "Prinz Eugen... And also..." The girl's gaze focused on the Chief and the other fairy, peeking behind the fence.

It was then that the Chief realized what was going on.

"...It's here."

"Huh?" Baker sounded, looking down to the fairy, only to meet her terrified face.

"I've seen that gaze before, on the people that I saw in captivity. The one behind the Fog Tunnels... The one behind this whole thing is possessing that cruiser!"

"W-Wait, are you serious?!" Baker turned his attention back to the girl, only to freak out a bit from the look on her face.

A wide grin had shaped on the otherwise lifeless face.

"Ooh, I have been so worried about you", the possessed girl said as she looked towards the fairies, with a tone that some twisted mind might've labeled as delight. "For you to just wander off like that, I even started to think that you might have gone for good."

The fairies backed off from the fence, and went peeking behind Baker's leg. The girl seemed to be oblivious of the implications however, as she turned her attention back down on the two battleships with the same grin.

"And to even find _you_ here, after you vanished so long time ago", the girl glanced over Iowa, making the blondie a bit uncomfortable. "Who would have thought that a search for that odd thing would turn out this joyfully?"

"W-What is this 'odd thing' anyway?" Iowa retorted. "And what do you want?"

"It seems that odd thing is irrelevant now. Now that I have found everything that had gone missing, I can finally put myself at ease after we have destroyed the ones responsible for this."

"Wait, 'we'?" Nagato took note. "What are you blathering about, Saka... No, whatever you are?"

"Hm, is it not obvious? We will destroy those who tried to take you away from me, and then we will go back to prepare for my plan as intended... And by the looks of it, you poor vessels have been exposed to the wrong kind of recipe, we need to get that fixed as soon as possible."

"...I'm not really following you with these ramblings", Iowa said with a more serious tone, "but what makes you think that we would just come with you?"

"Hm, what are you talking about? Of _course_ you will be coming with me, is that not obvious?"

Iowa and Nagato were quite confused, sharing a brief look with each other.

"...What if we don't want to come with you?" Iowa asked with even more serious tone.

"Huh? But you _will_ come with me."

"And what if we say no?" Nagato asked, with as serious and slightly angry tone.

The grin was slowly beginning to drop on the possessed girl's face.

"...What you say is irrelevant, you _will_ come with m-"

"What would prevent us from coming up to you and just beat you to a pulp?!" Iowa roared, now wiping the grin off the girl's face completely.

" _Oi_ , don't you dare, _kinpatsu_. That's still my comrade, you know?"

"Ah. S-Sorry, I just went with the flow..."

Not comprehending the situation, the possessed girl looked at the two battleships in disbelief. They don't want to come with it? What are these two vessels talking about? Just how imperfect recipe were they exposed to?

The girl's gaze eventually went back up to the boat, to see whether the third vessel and the little things were already coming down to join it.

...The third vessel looked at it... Rather strangely. As if looking at it with a face of discomfort, even backing up a bit as its gaze wandered back to it. But the strangest thing must've been the behavior of the little things. When it began to gaze over them, they just hid themselves behind that... Human. But, what is with this behavior, on all of its things; the vessels, the little things, it's as if they...

...It's as if they don't want to come back. It's as if they don't even want to _see_ it.

...It's as if they have teamed up with the ones they were supposed to destroy.

"...What is this? What is this?! **What is this?!** " the girl suddenly growled, making everyone else jolt a bit. She first looked towards the fairies. "You are supposed to hate the humanity, you are supposed to be filled with desire to see them suffer! Why would you help _them_ instead of _me_ , have you forgotten who brought you all back?!"

Even though she was hiding behind Baker's leg, the Chief could practically feel its gaze on her as it said all that. And after that, it turned its attention back to the battleships. "And you, why are _you_ helping these humans? You were all discarded, obsolete, forgotten! I am offering you a chance to give them what they deserve, so why would you stand up against me?! Do _you_ not want to see the humanity suffer?!"

"...I'm sorry to tell you, but you're really barking at the wrong tree here", Iowa said, with a bit of a wistful tone. "Discarded? Obsolete? Forgotten? Heh, that doesn't sound like me at all. Although... That doesn't mean I don't have any regrets, quite the contrary. And quite frankly, if someone were to come up to me and take a shot for something I've done to them in the past... I wouldn't hold it against them..."

Nagato had a bit of different reaction as her face showed signs of repressed frustration.

"...I'm not going to lie, I'm not fond of how my _Kaigun_ discarded their pride and me along with it like trash back then... However, do you really think that I would follow you just like that, when you have the guts to spout all that nonsense through someone else...? No, not _just_ someone else. You dare to pop up, and tell all these things through Sakawa...? The one who deserves this kind of disrespectful treatment the _least_ out of this entire atoll!"

"W-Whoa, whoa, Nagato, she's still your comrade, remember?" Iowa tried to calm down the dark-haired girl.

"...Hey, don't you have anything to say?" Able suddenly asked Eugen, who was just looking on at these two battleships in awe.

"... _Nein_. Well, I had, but… I think like they expressed my feelings better than I could have..."

After Nagato had calmed down a bit, Iowa turned her attention back to the possessed girl.

"So, your turn, shorty... What'll it be?"

Finally realizing that these vessels really weren't planning to come back with it, the possessed girl's demeanor began to show signs of gradually growing agitation. Its breathing became heavier, its face began to show signs of rage, all the while trying to comprehend this situation it hadn't even considered to take place.

No, no, **no**! What is this, what kind of recipe _were_ these vessels subjected to?! No, this is wrong, this is all wrong! They should have been easy to persuade, they should have come to my side without any hesitation!

What should I do? What should I do?! **What should I-?!**

...I cannot let them live. Letting them be could just ruin the whole plan!

With a swift swing, the girl raised its turrets, and took a shot.

BOOM!

...

...By the time everyone realized what had just happened, they were already mesmerized by the sight what had immediately followed.

Seemingly out of instinct, Nagato had raised her right hand, and caught the bullet in midair, with seemingly no signs of injury on her hand.

With everyone, even the dark-haired girl herself confused, the following few moments went on with everyone staring at the otherwise unfazed Nagato. But after a while, she regained her composure, looking at the buller for a while longer, until letting it drop beneath the ocean waves.

"You know, since you _had_ picked Sakawa for this occasion, I was assuming that you had some kind of a secret plan for this kind of a situation... But it seems like there was no deeper meaning behind that choice, if any at all. Even if it _is_ night and even if we took out these spotlights, do you really think you could take out two battleships with just one light cruiser under a clear, cloudless night sky?!"

* * *

...What? No... No. No! **No!**

But, that odd thing was so interested about this vessel. But, the negativity... The power... Why? Why doesn't it work? Why is that tarnished vessel still standing?!

...Wait, what is this?

Why? Why did these two vessels began to emanate such negativity... Wait, these are... Light cruisers?

...Bright night is bad. One light cruiser is bad.

...

Dark night is good. More light cruisers is good.

...Need more dark. Need more cruisers!

* * *

 _BOOM!_

A sound like muffled thunder echoed throughout the area, making everyone jolt out of surprise. And suddenly, two fogs of pillar suddenly emerged on both sides of the possessed girl, quickly increasing in size. But the pillars suddenly stopped growing as they had covered about the same height and width as the purple-haired girl. And nearly as abruptly, the fog pillars disappeared.

But now, the possessed girl wasn't alone.

Now standing next to her were two girls; one with brown, twintailed hair and an orange blouse, and one with short, violet hair and an eyepatch. And both of their eyes looked the same; devoid of life like glass.

"Wait, it can call for reinforcements?" Iowa was shocked by the sudden appearance of the two girls. "That's not fair!"

"Wait, these two..." Nagato seemed to realize something. "These two are from the _Teikoku Kaigun_!"

"...Uuh, the what now?"

"Guuh... My navy. From my _navy_."

"Huh?! ...So you know them?"

"Actually, I'm not sure, I may have seen the other one before... However, I'm sure that these two were _not_ on this atoll back then. Me and Sakawa were the only ones from our _Kaigun_ during those... Tests."

"Wait, then where did these two come from...?"

At this point, the two noticed that the spotlights seemed to be getting dimmer.

" _Oi_ , _chibi-tachi_ , don't you dare kill the lights now, we have to be careful with this-?!"

...But it wasn't the fairies. The two completely failed to notice the other kind of fog that was starting to gather around them, blocking out both the moonlight _and_ the spotlights.

"Wait, what is this?!" Iowa shouted out while the two battleships were looking around frantically as their surroundings got darker. The reaction seemed to please the possessed girl as her grin came back. But the two were unable to notice that when everything around them went almost pitch black shortly after.

* * *

"Chief, what is this?" Baker asked as he gazed over the black mass of fog that had settled in right below the spotlights over the water, stretching almost a kilometer around them. The fairies maintaining the lights moved them around rather frantically, trying to see if they could spot anything beyond this dense fog. They couldn't.

"...I'm not completely sure. But considering that this thing was able to materialize fog under the sea, I guess this is just another way for it to utilize that power. Also... I had no idea that this thing was able to adapt like this, it blocked all the light sources and brought reinforcements right after Nagato mentioned its shortcomings."

"Oh yeah, who _were_ those two girls? Nagato mentioned that they were from her navy, but how could that be?"

"Could it be... That this atoll wasn't the only place that those tentacles raided? But if that's the case, it might've even secured all of the shipwrecks on the entire Pacific."

"Wait, isn't that really bad?" Eugen asked... But then she realized that talking about the Pacific wouldn't exactly help them with the situation at hand. "W-Wait, isn't _this_ really bad right now?! Shouldn't we help those two?!"

"That's right, bro!" Able concured. "What are we going to do now?! They are down there with three armed ship girls!"

"Ah, sorry..." Baker said, as he leaned on the railing, seemingly starting to spout his thoughts out loud. "...Let's see, we cannot bring them their riggings, because Iowa's is out of fuel and Nagato's is still in its salvaged state... And even if we _can_ use them, we could be easily assaulted when delivering them to them, so they need to handle this like that.. And what are we going to do with the enemies? Do we attack them, do we wear them down, do we try to intimidate them and hope they retreat? ...No, if we intimidate them, they could easily just call even more reinforcements. Although, if we do succeed... No, wait, do we _want_ them to retreat...?"

"Uuhm, is this normal?" Eugen asked Able, pointing at Baker.

"Weeell..." Able replied, "Yeah, he tends to ramble like that sometim-AAGH!"

The boat rocked back and forth again, as if it was hit by another torpedo. However, there hadn't been any explosion sound accompanying the hit.

"...Wait, could it be", Chief muttered as she got back up again, "that the fog is even blocking out sound? This is bad, we have no way to tell how those two are doing down there like this."

"Owowow..." Able wailed, as she got back up again. And while she did, she happened to look inside the cabin, noticing that her laptop had fallen down on the floor along with the subs. "Huh? AAAAAH! My PC!"

She swiftly entered the cabin, and began to check how badly her laptop had been damaged. But surprisingly enough, the only damage seemed to be a slight crack on the edge of the screen, with the screen still showing the paused video of the tentacles. Being slightly relieved, she closed the laptop, unplugged the cables and put it in a bag. She then began to lift the subs to put them on a nearby sofa, but then she noticed something odd.

The sub used by her and Eugen was emanating a slight green glow, faintly visible in the blacked out room. And after a while of twisting and turning, she realized that the glow was coming from the capsule still installed on the sub's rack.

"(Huh, that's odd)", Able thought. "(Is this how it glows in the neutral mode...? No, no, no, I don't think that's how it worked, it was something like... Uuh, how did bro put it? Something like, they won't react to those that are already back...? But, the tentacles swiped the whole atoll clean, so why would this...?)"

The small puzzle pieces began to fall in place within Able's head... Well, she _thought_ they were, so she wanted to make certain that it wasn't just her imagination. She began to unscrew the capsule from the sub's rack, endured another sudden torpedo hit while doing with, and eventually got it out. She then rushed outside the cabin with the capsule in hand, going straight to the railing.

"Huh?" Baker sounded as he saw Able reach out the capsule towards the black mass beneath. "Able, what are you-?"

"(Ah, there's no mistaking it!)", Able thought as she looked at the capsule. "(The glow is much stronger now. Then, does that mean...?)"

"B-Bro, how many of these were there left? Three, wasn't it?"

"Huh..? Well, Iowa threw one away, and we used two to bring back... Yes, I believe we still have three in tot-"

"Where are the other two?"

"Uuh, I-I believe they are somewhere in the arsenal-"

"Got it. Come on, Oigen, I need your help on this."

"Uwaah! Wait, where are we going?"

"There is still hope. We can still bring them back!"

* * *

With their backs against each other, the two battleships did everything they could to hear even the slightest disturbance in the waves to determine where the next attack would be coming from...

...

Suddenly, the battleships jumped away from each other, as the blurry shapes of three torpedoes passed underneath the spot where the two of them had just stood on. And as the torpedo had passed them, they jumped back to the spot, standing back to back again. But this time, Nagato seemed to notice that the blonde-haired girl didn't seem to be as dense as earlier.

"Hm? What is it, _kinpatsu_? We can't afford to let our guard down, you know?"

"Okay, first of all, it's Iowa. And second of all... Uuhm, I know they've only shot three times so far, but... Is it just me, or are they being really, really quiet? As in, aside from when they shoot, they don't seem to make any other sound, and it kinda feels like all of those volleys have came from the same spot."

"...Huh? Now that you mentioned it, it _is_ awfully quiet... Wait, could it be that they are still standing on that same spot?"

"Huh, you think so too? But, that thing brought reinforcements and everything, so it shouldn't be that dumb... R-Right?"

They stood in silence for a little longer, until they suddenly began to hear a voice of small motors, slowly moving away from the spot where all of those volleys had just came from... And it was then when the two ship girls finally made their realization.

"(...What? It _is_ that dumb?!)" Nagato thought to herself. "(This thing... The thought didn't even occur to me, but it really isn't following any strategy and it has _no_ idea how to act in a combat... Although, even though this does bring some peace of mind, now we really need to keep our ears open. And whatever we do, we should keep quiet about its mistakes, like how they're still moving in one big group... But, even with this handicap, how are we going to settle this without any equipm-?)"

"Uwah! Uwawawah! _F-Fräulein_ Able, my hand is slipping, my hand is-AAAH!"

 _ **SPLASH!**_

"...Huh?" the two girls sounded, looking towards the source of the sudden wailing, almost ignoring another volley of torpedoes. But as they noticed the torpedoes approaching and were about jump out of the way, they noticed that the sound must've caught the thing by surprise as well, since the torpedoes missed the two by over three meters. And based on what began to rain down after the explosion, the torpedo must've hit the nearby beach. Not that the two battleships would've noticed as they had already dashed their way to Eugen when the sand began to rain down.

"Oigen, why did you come down here?! This is not the time for something like this, you know?!", Iowa whispered.

"Owowow... _F-Fräulein_ Iowa... Here", Eugen wailed as she showed the three green capsules she was carrying in her right hand. They were all glowing with a rather strong green tint.

"Wait", Nagato said, recognizing the things, "didn't you use one of these to-?"

"Ah, shh!" Iowa hissed, seemingly realizing why Eugen had brought these things to them, and remembering how their enemies have been changing their behavior based on the battleships' discussions.

All while remaining quiet, Iowa picked Eugen back on her feet, took two of her capsules, and handed one of them to Nagato. Being a bit reluctant at first, Nagato eventually picked it up after Iowa had kept the thing in front of her long enough. And it was then when everyone noticed another incoming torpedo volley, jumping out of the way just in time.

And once moved and back on their feet, Iowa quickly waved her hand to signify the other two to come closer. And once they were close enough, Iowa looked at the other two with bit of a serious look on her face.

Just follow my lead, Iowa slowly formed the words with her mouth, before facing towards the general direction of the latest torpedo volley. Assuming that they were about to move out, the other two were preparing to follow the blondie's dash. However...

"Aah!" Iowa sounded, making the other two take two quick steps before realizing that the blond-haired girl hadn't actually moved an inch. "With you here, we might just be able to fend them off, Oigen!" But as she noticed that the other two had moved forward, Iowa began to wave her free hand frantically to signify the two to come back next to her. "However, if they were to ram straight towards us, I'm not sure if we could make it!"

Realizing what Iowa was trying to do, Nagato decided to keep going.

"Yes, it would be quite a problem! If they were to hit us with all their might, we might be unable to recover!"

"W-Wha-? Is that true?!" Eugen shouted out... Although by the sound of it, she didn't seem to be faking it.

But her attention was soon caught by the sound of the small motors, rapidly approaching the three of them. And as they were getting closer, the light on the capsules began to shine even brighter and brighter.

And suddenly, the three possessed girls came into view, and they all rammed straight onto the three ship girls.

"Guh... O-Oigen! Nagato!" Iowa shouted out, as she wrapped her free hand around the eye-patched girl. "Press and swing!"

Iowa showed example, as she swung the capsule on the violet-haired girl's left shoulder.

The thing soon realized what was happening, but before it had time to react, the other two girls followed the example and stung the other possessed girls with their own capsules.

* * *

...What? No. No! **No!**

"Huh? W-What the-?! Euugh, look what's oozing out of them! It's like they're bleeding... Foam?"

" _Oi_ , this was your idea, don't you dare back out because of something like this!"

"Huh...? That wasn't my intention tho-Ah, no you don't!"

It could feel it. Its grasp on the vessels was slipping away. The feeling of their limbs was slowly numbing into nothingness. It tried to break free from these tarnished vessels, but their grasp was way too strong.

But, why? They just said how they may not be able to recover from this, so how are they still standing like nothing is wrong? Why? Why?! **Why?!**

And eventually, it lost all contact with the two reinforcement vessels, only leaving the one it send out in the first place.

* * *

"(Huh? This seem to take a bit more time...)", Nagato noted, as the grey foam still kept spraying out of the capsule's entry wound, but it seemed to be coming out in shorter and shorter bursts. And based on the lack of limb movement and the heavy breathing, it seemed like the thing was still possessing the girl's head.

"D-Do not..." the girl snarled among the heavy breathing. "D-Do not think... T-This is over... I will... I will be back... And I will... Will kill... I will kill you all!"

"...Then I have only one thing to say to you", Nagato said as she put her mouth next to the girl's ear. And without realizing it, she gave out a huge grin when she lowered her voice to whisper the last three words...

"Bring it on."

"...G-GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the girl roared, and the rest of the foam still trapped in the girl bursted out, with enough force to send the capsule flying out of Nagato's hand. And after the foam spray had stopped, the girl's body eventually slumped on the dark-haired girl's hands, completely motionless.

"W-What did you just say to her?" Eugen asked meekly, as the other two ship girls approached Nagato.

"...Nothing much", Nagato said, slightly moving the motionless girl to a more appropriate position, as if carrying a princess. "...So, was that it? What happens next?"

"Uuhm, hard to say, I've never done this before. And this dark fog doesn't really seem to clear up", Iowa said, looking around their ever dark surroundings.

"Ueeh, don't tell me there's more on the way", Eugen wailed, "we don't have anymore of those capsule things left."

"W-Well, for now, I think we should just return to the shi-" Iowa was about to say, until the water below them suddenly began to glow with a blue tint. "...Huh, what's this?"

The glow seemed to be coming from the sprays of foam that the possessed girls had just let out, glowing brighter and brighter as the foam kept gathering itself in a smaller and smaller area. And after all that was left was a small glowing ball of light, the ball suddenly let out a small shockwave, evaporating the dark fog around them in an instant. And in just a matter of seconds, the area around them had turned back to normal, as if nothing had ever been wrong.

"...Uuhm, that works too... I guess?" Iowa eventually uttered in confusion.

"Hey! Are you okay down there?!" Baker called out from the boat, as he finally managed to see the ship girls. "Did the plan work out?!"

"Ah, yeah! Looks like it!" Iowa shouted back. And it was then that she began to hear mumbling voices from the eyepatched girl she had been holding this entire time.

And after trying to let go of her, Iowa noticed that the girl was able to stand on her own despite her slightly empty-minded state. As the twintailed girl on her hands seemed to be as capable to stand on her own, Eugen let go the other girl as well. She and Iowa then backed down a bit, not wanting to startle either of them, or in case they were still going to be hostile.

...

"...Hah?!" the two girls suddenly shouted out, starting to look around themselves frantically, as if to see whether something was wrong. But as they didn't seem to find anything off, they started to calm down, but they still looked rather confused.

"W-Wait, that's weird, I could've sworn that something hit me just now", the eyepatched girl said, looking down on her legs.

"Huh? I'm... I'm fine? B-But, how?" the twintailed girl said, tapping around her torso and face.

"...Huh?" the girls had eventually stopped and turned their attention to each other after hearing the other's shuffling. "Wha-?!" Startled by one another, the twintailed girl put up her hand with turrets mounted on her glove, while the eyepatched girl pulled out what - oddly enough - looked like a sword. "W-Who the hell are you?! Where did you come from?!"

Aaah... Even though they act like that, it seems like they are not affected by that thing anymore, Iowa thought to herself, as she approached the two.

"Hey, hey, calm down there. There's no need for that, everything is just fi-"

"Huh, an enemy battleship?!" the two girls shouted as they now turned their attention and weapons towards the blondie.

" _C-Chibis_ , I'll try to buy you some time, just get the hell out of here!" the eyepatched girl yelled as she kept her left hand on her ear. "...Don't you hear me _chibis_?! I said get the hell out of-!"

But as she looked behind her, she saw no one.

"...Huh? _C-Chibis_? Arashio? Suzukaze? ...Anyone?"

Seeing the eyepatched girl calling out to her seemingly absent fleet, the other girl looked around as well, only to realize that her own fleet seemed to be as absent.

"Wha-? Shigure? Samidare? ...Wait, where even is this?"

"Hey, you two!" Nagato suddenly shouted out as she walked up next to Iowa, grabbing the attention of the frantic girls. "I understand that you must be confused, but I'd like you to answer this one, simple question: Who are you?"

"...S-Seriously, what the hell?" the eyepatched girl looked up to Nagato, barely able to keep her sword upright out disbelief as her eyes kept shifting between the two battleships. "Why is there a battleship from _Kaigun_ here now?"

But the twintailed girl didn't seem to be as confused as she just kept staring at the dark-haired ship girl...

"Wait, Nagato- _san_?" the girl suddenly said as she recognized the battleship, catching the dark-haired girl's attention. "What are _you_ doing here? I didn't know you were taking part in this operation."

"...And you are?" Nagato had to say as she didn't really recognize the girl.

"Huh? Ah, I-I'm Sendai, the nameship of my class. We were working together during the Battle of Midway..."

"Ah, my apologies. It's been so long that I had completely forgotten what you looked like, my bad... And you?"

The eyepatched one was clenching on her sword for a little while longer, until she finally decided that the situation was just way too bizarre to be some kind of an elaborate enemy plot to confuse her, prompting her to put her sword away.

"...Tenryuu, a nameship... Now could you please just tell me what's going on here? Where are we and what's up with this American ship? And what happened to my fleet?"

"Yeah, and what happened to _my_ fleet? And, with all due respect, I _really_ don't recall you being assigned on this operation."

"...Okay, I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you two are talking about right now", Nagato said, looking at the two with confusion on her face. "Also... Don't you remember what you two just did to us?"

The two girls looked at each other, now looking even more confused. But before neither of them could reply, a motorboat suddenly rolled up to the ship girls, and probably the most confused one of them all emerged from the boat; the island resort's representative.

"O-Okay, could someone please tell me what the hell just happened?! And don't you dare talk about experimental fireworks and whatnot, 'cause I'm not buying that shit anymore!"

"(Ah. Crap)", Iowa and Nagato thought to themselves, since they had completely forgotten that the whole thing had just taken place in front of an island resort. And as they looked towards the beach, they spotted a couple of sandy craters and a handful of people looking at them, some even with cameras.

And among the debate that soon took off between the ship girls and the man on the boat, one purple-haired girl finally opened her eyes.

" _P-Pyan_...?"

* * *

Chapter 5 Afterword: (26/8/2016)

...Yeah, I decided to go with an allies-coming-back-as-enemies kind of plot. But don't worry, there will be proper Abyssals. Eventually.

Until then, see ya. :)


	6. Chapter 6: The First Aftermath

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: The First Aftermath**

* * *

18th of December, 1942. The waters near Madang, New Guinea.

While on a patrol with a handful of destroyers, Tenryuu and her fleet were ambushed by an enemy submarine. Caught by surprise, the light cruiser's stern was hit by two torpedoes.

2nd of November, 1943. The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay.

After barely avoiding a collision with an ally destroyer Shigure, Sendai attempted to regain her composure, before suddenly being struck down by the enemy fleet's concentrated turret fire.

1st of July, 1946. The Operation Crossroads.

Sakawa could only stand and watch, as a small plane dropped down its nuclear bomb. Eventually, the bomb detonated in midair, nearly obliterating the light cruiser's deck in an instant.

...

23rd of April, 2013. Bikini Atoll.

After the initial shock of being hit dead on, each of the cruisers suddenly found themselves unscathed, separated from their respective fleets, surrounded by an unfamiliar terrain, and greeted by an ally battleship, Nagato.

...is what Baker and Able managed to put together, since these three really didn't seem to have any recollection beyond the incidents that reportedly resulted in each of their sinking. Neither did they seem to remember anything from their brief time when they were possessed by their mysterious enemy.

At first, the two thought that these light cruisers were just in a state of denial. However...

* * *

"You know, the more I read these, the more I think that this thing has no idea what it's doing", Baker noted, as he scrolled through a series of news on his laptop.

"Yeah, I know, right? Even though the Chief has told us not underestimate its malice and all that... I just can't help but think how stupid it is", Able tried to hold her laugh, scrolling through another site and its news.

It had been three days since their first confrontation with the mysterious entity. They were still docked by the Bikini Island, now waiting for the resupplies that they had requested for this day before setting off. But during these few days, the thing had already put its plan into motion... Supposedly.

This is what the two of them had managed to gather from the news:

During the time when the tentacles were dragging away the ships in the atoll, the tentacles had reportedly appeared all over the world, trying to take away the WWII ships that now served as harbor docked museum ships.

...Yes, _trying_.

In most cases, the tentacles just ended up rubbing themselves against the hulls of these ships for a couple of minutes, trying to get a good hold of them while smearing them with grey ooze, before dropping back down under the waves and disappearing. And in the end, all of these ships were left otherwise undisturbed. Needless to say, it confused pretty much everyone, since no one could come up with an explanation for this worldwide, synchronized boat rubbing.

And in just few hours after the confrontation by the Bikini Island, reports and even videos began to emerge about strange humanoid beings that floated on water, using odd, miniature-like turrets. They suddenly appeared near big coastal cities around the world, emerging from Fog Tunnels and attacking buildings by the water.

...Well, while the news outlets said that they "attacked buildings", even those who had witnessed the very first attacks quickly realized that these odd humanoids just kept cruising in a circle and kept shooting towards the same buildings over and over again. And while these unfortunate targets _did_ take quite a lot of damage, it was still one target per one city. Although, when the local coast guards approached them, the humanoids did change their focus towards them, but the coast guards managed to resolve these issues with a relative ease, even without any casualties. And after damaging them enough, the humanoids retreated out of sight through the Fog Tunnels.

This same situation had repeated number of times during these past few days, but it only took people three times to figure out that these humanoids had a pattern; they would reappear in the same cities, on the same spots, at the _exact_ same time in every three hours, and they would just repeat their "attacks" over and over again. And it didn't take long for these cities to set up sea mines by these spots, making the humanoids skip straight to the departure right after their arrival.

And there was something else that Baker and Able noticed, making these attempts even stranger: Based on the appearance of the turrets and brief comparisons, these possessed ship girls consisted of battleships, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and even destroyers. And there was no consistency on which were partnered with which, and there were only three girls per city. At best.

But despite all of these oddities, one odd trait stood above them all: This was only happening in _four_ cities. All of these attacks from the last three days had been committed by only ten ship girls in total, and the number hadn't increased since they first appeared. And despite all of these relentless attacks on these cities, the thing hadn't come back to attack the atoll even _once_ during this entire time.

Eventually, the people on the small ship, little bigger than a yacht, reached a conclusion: It wasn't ready yet. It wasn't ready at all.

It completely failed to retrieve the museum ships despite its clear intentions, only making itself known to the entire world. And based on the amount of possessed ship girls so far, it seemed to have only managed to produce a little over dozen capsules of its own. But why did it start off its plan so suddenly, when it clearly wasn't prepared enough? What on earth could've been the catalyst for that?

Moreover, as their encounter and these news stories showed, it had basically no combat experience, but it does seem to have the capability to improve itself on the fly. However, even though it's eager to attack the humanity, it hasn't come back to attack the one ship that could ruin it all. Just what is holding that thing back...?

"Well, while this thing's behavior is beyond retarded at this point, I don't think we should take it lightly."

"Ehehee... I know, I know, but just thinking about it now is just so funny."

At this point Able happened to look outside the cabin's window, spotting something that had become quite a frequent sight over these past few days.

"Oh. Bro, look..."

"Hm?" Baker looked up to Able, and then to the window, where he spotted a tuft of purple hair peeking out from behind the wall beneath it. He let out a sigh. "We can still see you just fine, Sakawa..."

" _Pya_?!" a voice sounded behind the window, accompanied by a twitch of the tuft. It took a while, but the tuft eventually lifted, revealing a curious, slightly anxious gaze of the purple-haired girl. And eventually she stood up and entered the cabin.

"Uum... H-Hello, Baker- _san_ , Able- _san_. I was just wondering what you two were doing right now..."

"Uuh, well, we were just looking over the latest news, to see how that thing is doing out there."

"Aah, I see... Knowing your enemy's movements is important alright... Uum, anything else?"

"Well, we're still waiting word from our suppliers, but nothing else is really going on right now..."

"I... I see... _S-Shitsurei shima_ -"

But as the ship girl was about to leave, Baker thought that enough is enough.

"Sakawa, wait."

The girl stopped just by the door.

"...I thought that Nagato had already explained it all, but... Well, consider this: This island has a resort, a rather well-established one at that, and the atoll isn't as packed as it was during those... Tests. And, well... Okay, there isn't much else that I could point out, but what I try to say is... Those tests are over, no one is going to subject you, Nagato or anyone else to those kind of things ever again. I know you might still find it hard to believe us, but-"

"That's not it..."

"Huh?"

The girl turned around to face Baker, with a frustrated look on her face. She then walked away from the door, around the table, and then slammed her hand on the table as she reached Baker.

"I-I just want to _do_ something! When I was brought here with Nagato- _san_ , all I could do was just go where I was told, and then just stand there like a... Well, just _stand_ there! And even before all of that, all I've really done is just idle around and, and... Why is everyone else waiting for the supplies on the beach and why do _I_ have to stay on board like this?! I just... Just let me help you out or something, just... Please..."

...

"('A girl with no will to live', huh...)" Baker thought as the ship girl had crouched on the floor. "(If that's how Iowa and others really saw her in that video, then this just can't be the same Sakawa. This can't be the girl who had just spent the last seven decades on the seafloor with no life achievements to comfort her. Knowing her service record, who knows how badly the mere thought of being one huge disposable had crushed her mind over the years... No, this is the Sakawa who had just witnessed the Able bomb test only three days ago, someone who is merely confused by this strange situation... Someone who is still waiting for their chance to show what they could do... Heh, I have no idea where her memories from all those decades have gone, but I think this is the best thing that could've happened to her under these circumstances.")

"Okay, we're sorry... Sit down, we need to talk", Baker said, and after a while, the low-spirited girl lifted herself on a nearby chair. "...Look, the way we got you, Tenryuu and Sendai here was a bit... Different than with Nagato and such. And there were certain things that happened with you in particular that... Well, we thought that we should keep a closer eye on you for the time being."

" _Pya_...?"

"But rest assured. Once were on the move again, you can bet that you'll have a plenty of things to do... Well, I mean, we only have _six_ of you girls on board right now and the enemy is already on the move, so we're pretty likely to make you lot work to the bone sooner or later."

"Eh, work to the bone...? Uum, I don't actually have that much combat experience, so... C-Can't I do something more like...? Well, I was thinking like something that doesn't require that much fighting or-"

"None of you can afford to be a pacifist at this point, I'm afraid."

" _Pyuuun_..."

"But, look, all six of you are pretty much on the same line right now. While others may have years of experience behind them, most of you have only had three days to get used to those new bodies. And that is bound to bring difficulties even to someone like Nagato."

"Even to... Nagato- _san_...?"

"So, don't worry about it, okay?" Baker raised his hand and began to pet the ship girl's head, making the girl jolt a bit. "You'll get your time to shine this time, just you wait. You're going to do great out there, you hear?"

...

After a moment in silence, a timid smile spread on the purple-haired girl's face.

"... _Hai_ , thank you", Sakawa replied quietly with a relieved tone.

"(Hmm, good job there, bro)", Able thought to herself as she turned her attention back to the news with a content smile on her face.

* * *

"...Okay, I will be the first one to admit it", Chief started, as she looked over the multitude of fairies that she had assembled, "even _I_ didn't want to have anything to do with this cleanup operation. All that smell and stickiness are just way too close for comfort, so I can't really blame anyone for being unwilling to do this... However..."

Chief looked behind her, on the projections of the Japanese battleship and the three light cruisers... And their sorry states.

"It has been three days... And every single one of them is _still_ covered in that ooze! And as you can see, most of it has also hardened up, so now we can't even go down there, pick up a hose and just spray it all off. No, now we need to go down there with fricking jackhammers, and drill off that ooze not only from the projections, but from nearly _half_ of the fricking dock!"

"...S-So, which one of us will take care of this?" someone asked among the crowd.

"Like I said, now _we_ , as in _all_ of us, need to go down there and drill off that ooze. The next patch of supplies is just about to arrive, and I believe it's in everyone's interest to have these things up and running as soon as possible."

...But instead of agreeing with this notion, the fairies suddenly began to complain how abruptly the Chief had just thrown this task at them, and how they could never be able to do all that in such a short period of time.

"Oh, don't you give me that 'we don't have time' attitude, you know very well that we could pull this off with flying colors! You've all just gotten way too used to this slow work pace these last couple of we-"

But as the complaints pretty much muffled out the Chief's rant at this point, she could only lower her microphone and wait for it to cool down.

...

However, as these complaints didn't seem to cool down, the Chief had to cut it short by tapping the microphone on her hand in quick succession, sending a deafening noise of overlapping static through the speakers. This finally made everyone stop their ranting and cover their ears instead.

"...You know, I had this one discussion with that Nagato yesterday. After I had shown her around the arsenal, she seemed rather worried about us fairies, wondering whether or not we're truly up to the challenges that we're bound to face from now on."

Thinking that this was some pathetic attempt to motivate them by questioning their workmanship, the fairies were about to keep going with their complaints. But the Chief quickly raised her hand, signifying that she still had more to say.

"And then she told me that, if I were to deem it necessary, she could help me bring some proper discipline in this little factory of ours. I'm not sure if you're all aware, but the Japanese took those kind of things really, _really_ seriously back in the day. So in a way, bringing some of that here does sound quite tempting, don't you think?"

Not sure what to think of about this information, the fairies could just look around at each other with a bit confused looks on their faces, until someone finally decided to speak up.

"Uum, what would this entail, exactly?"

"Well, I'm not sure what she would have in mind specifically, but she did seem quite displeased about how our tools are just all over the place, how we still haven't established any kind working hours, and - most obviously - how we still haven't cleaned up these new riggings. I mean, you should've _seen_ her face when I showed her her rigging, she looked like she would've thrown it straight out of the arsenal had she stood any closer to it."

"...Wait, what about our prime time break? What did she think about that?"

At this point, the Chief's face suddenly went even grimmer.

"I... I didn't mention anything about that... But considering that she really didn't seem to approve our lax working hours, _and_ that she comes from an era where televisions weren't even a thing yet, I think she could easily just abolish the whole thing altogether. That's why I didn't take up on this offer straight away..."

This outrageous claim pulled out quite a shocked reaction from the rest of the arsenal, starting up a concerned chatter among the fairies.

"D-Did she just say _abolish_? The prime time break?!"

"She did, but... Surely that Naga-toe couldn't be that... C-Could she?"

"But it's my turn to choose the marathon of the day tomorrow! Can't we at least wait until then?"

"Well, my next turn would be in next week, and I'm not going to give up on that break either way!"

"But then how, how could we...?"

After all that chattering had reached the same conclusion, the fairies slowly turned their attention back to the Chief for a confirmation.

"Uum... I-If we just clean up those ships and reorganize our equipment, that Naga-toe wouldn't have any reason to complain, right?"

"Yes, that should do it, at least for now... So, as most of you know, the supplies should arrive in thirty minutes."

Looking at each other again, and then towards a row of jackhammers, the fairies eventually began to rush towards the contraptions and once armed, they began to make their way down to the drydock.

"(Heh, I knew that would change their minds)", Chief thought as she looked on the hustle. "(...Well, not that I would blame them. We're just about to reach the end of the first series of Star Trek, and I don't want our run to end with this kind of a cliffhanger!)"

After letting these bone-chilling thoughts fade out, the Chief eventually changed her focus back on the four projections down on the drydock. But as she looked over them, she soon focused on the three light cruisers.

"(That thing... Just what did it do to make those work?)"

After bringing the three riggings to the arsenal right after the assault, they all seemed to be fully functional, and they weren't covered in ooze in any way. But in a matter of hours, these riggings had slowly began to ooze and turn grey, shedding away everything that initially seemed to be fine with these cruisers. And by the time a day had passed, the shedded ooze had fallen onto the dock, and all of the cruisers looked completely rundown, rusted and covered in seaweed and grey ooze.

But what the Chief found most odd about all of this was the glaring contrast between the before and after states of the weaponry on these riggings. When they ran some preliminary tests, everything seemed just fine; triggers worked as intended, turrets turned smoothly in their sockets, and the strange sword thing that was part of Tenryuu's rigging managed to cut through steel bars with ease. But when they ran these tests after the riggings had stopped shedding the ooze, the results were completely different; the triggers were rusted shut, the turrets couldn't move an inch, and Tenryuu's sword just split in half when someone accidentally pushed it over.

"(Uuugh, the more I think about it, the less sense this makes)", Chief thought to herself, as she leaned on the railing overlooking the dock. "(Just how the hell did that thing do it?! W-Well, granted, it's not hard to think that it could make sunken ships seaworthy again like that, but this kind of approach shouldn't work with these kind of things at all! What kind of a liquid could make rusted turrets work without a problem, but revert them back to normal the instant it wears o-?!)"

Suddenly, someone threw a jackhammer towards the Chief, making her fall on the floor on the impact.

"Ow! Hey, what was that fo-?!"

What she saw was the fairy that had argued with Eugen during her first visit in the arsenal. She didn't look that happy as she glared at the Chief.

"Don't you dare to tell everyone to go clean up all that crap and then stay behind like this, dammit..."

...The Chief couldn't think of anything to say back.

"Uuugh, yes, you're right... Okay, let's get this done!"

The two then began to make their way towards the stairs leading to the drydock, where the rest of the fairies were nearly halfway done with their drilling on Nagato's projection already.

* * *

The secret was out. The cover was blown. The internet went crazy. The authorities were powerless.

Everyone was talking about the weird tentacles, the odd humanoid creatures and the sudden reemergence of the Fog Tunnels now.

But as unfortunate as it seemed, this turn of events was just what the small ship, little bigger than a yacht, and its crew needed as they were stuck on the Bikini Island.

After Baker and others had unsuccessfully tried to come up with a cover story for what had happened earlier, the resort representatives had initially claimed that they would call the local officials first thing in the morning. But as the news about the strange attacks began to emerge over the night and they began to realize that now they had nothing to hide anymore, the ship's crew decided to tell what had truly happened.

The discussion between the two parties went on for hours, most of it being about the representatives expressing their disbelief about these absurd claims. But eventually, after bringing up the possibility that those weird tentacles might still be lurking around and that they could just snatch the local official vessels away in a heartbeat, the resort representatives finally decided to let them stay on the island like this, at least until they've received their resupplies.

With everyone keeping their eyes on the ocean, three days had eventually passed. The ship girls were now waiting for a word from their suppliers by the beach.

* * *

"Hm?" Iowa suddenly sounded, slowly putting her left hand on her ear. "Yes? ...Oh, they're that close already? ...Okay, we'll get over to that airport island and escort them here. Bye."

"Was that Able?" Nagato asked, now joining the blondie by the harbor.

"Yes, the supply plane seems to be quite close now. But yeah, they don't seem to have planned any kind of escorts, so we _do_ need to get over to Enyu and make sure the supplies will stay safe."

" _Oi_ , are you sure you'll be fine without any weapons?" Tenryuu walked up to the two. "And also, why do _we_ have to stay behind like this? Why can't we all just go, dammit?!"

"(...Did my _Kaigun_ really have someone like her in service?)" Nagato thought to herself as the eyepatched girl still refused to speak to her accordingly.

"Well, my... _Rikkingu_ is still in quite an unsightful state, and hers is out of fuel, so we cannot use them even if we wanted to. Also, if something _does_ go wrong during this brief time, this way we don't end up endangering every single of us. And out of all of us, I think we two stand the best chance out there at the moment."

"And if that thing _does_ try anything fishy, we'll just kick the crap out of it... Or whatever it is it would throw at us", Iowa said, bringing up her arm to show some muscle.

But instead of giving any kind of verbal reply, Tenryuu just began to glare the blondie with a rather obviously forced angry gaze. Being reminded that this is how this girl has acted towards her for the last few days now, Iowa didn't even bother to tell her to stop.

" _Oi_ , Sendai", Nagato said as the twintailed girl approached them as well, "keep an eye out on these waters while we're gone. And make sure", she pointed at Tenryuu, "that she doesn't come after us once we've departed."

"Huh, what kind of a girl do you take me f-?!"

"Understood", Sendai replied, giving the battleship a brief salute.

" _Oooi_!"

Giving a brief grin and a nod, Nagato hopped on water along with Iowa, and the two began to make their way towards the appointed meetup spot.

"...Hey, Nagato, can't you tell the eyepatch to stop that glaring...?"

"Hm, even if I did, one does not learn to trust another through words alone. You need to earn her trust by your actions, and yours alone."

"But I've tried to be so nice and all, and you can clearly see that it's not working! Seriously, what am I doing wrong?!"

"I believe you're just being too hasty, that's all. Also... I hope I don't need to remind you, but from her point of view, she was still at war with your navy just three days ago."

"Ah. W-Well, that seems to be the case, but..."

"No matter how nice you would be, you can't expect her to learn to trust you in just three days... No, I don't think she's even the only one with that state of mind."

* * *

"... _Nee_ , Tenryuu- _san_ ", Sendai said as the battleships had dashed way beyond your average audible range, "is that really necessary? Even though I'm pretty wary of her as well, now you're just rubbing it in."

"Damn straight! Since no one else is saying anything, I'm trying to make it clear that there's still someone keeping their eyes on her. 'The war is over' my ass, I'm not buying any of that until I see those _chibis_ again!" Tenryuu claimed, finally easing up her face once she was certain that the blondie couldn't see her gaze from that distance. But after pondering on what she had just said, something finally occurred to her. "...Hang on, how come _you've_ been so calm about all of this?! Don't tell me you've believed them just like that!"

"What? No, it's not like that! I just thought that we don't need both of us showing off the same concerns in such a bold manner."

"... _He_? I-I'm not alone on this?"

"What, you really thought no one else found all this weird?"

"Uuh, n-no!"

A moment of silence fell between the two, with both of them just standing there for a while... Eventually, Sendai walked over some rocks bordering the dock, and sat down by the water with her shoes creating a brief splash on the water's surface.

"...You know, it's weird. Now that there haven't been any voices in my head telling me what to do, I've just... Thought. Thought about a lot of things."

"Hm?"

"I've never done this before, but... All I've really done these past few days is just think. About the _Kaigun_ , about the war, about my... sisters... And about this body..."

Hearing the last bit, Tenryuu couldn't help but slowly raise up her own hand and just watch as she moved around her own fingers.

"...And the more I've thought about it, the more I've come to believe that... Maybe the war really is over..."

"Huh? Wait, you really _do_ believe that crap?! Like, all we have to go by is those stupid claims and those weird video clips, they could be just fooling us or-!"

"Just think about it! ...Ah, _g-gomen_ , I'm not used to talking like this..."

"Uum, t-that makes two of us, don't worry about it..."

"Hey, do you know about Truk, by any chance?"

"Hm? Well, yeah, you mean that one huge base, right? I've been there a few times..."

"From what I saw in those maps in that cabin, this atoll is basically right next to it... And yet, look around you. Three days, and there have been no signs of battle, warships, or even aircrafts, just... Nothing. And think about all the things we've seen on that boat alone. I just... I just can't think of any other explanation, other than what Nagato told us. That the war is just... Over. And that somehow, it has been a very long time since then..."

Another moment of silence fell between the two... And after a while, Tenryuu walked over to Sendai, and sat next to the twintailed girl.

"...It's not just Truk", Tenryuu mumbled.

"Hm?"

"Ever heard of Kwajalein? I was stationed there with my fleet, when we were capturing this place called Wake Island... If Truk was as far as the end of this harbor there, Kwajalein would be right about where that boat is", Tenryuu said as she pointed towards the boat behind them.

" _Haa_..."

"This atoll is supposed to be right in the middle of our territory, and yet... There's just nothing... But, why? I just... I just don't understand. Just three days ago, I wasn't even anywhere near this place, and now I'm here looking like this, and I'm being told that everyone I've ever known has... Just what am I supposed to think about all of this, seriously...?"

Yet another moment of silence fell between the two...

...

"Uuh, hey-"

"Ah!" the two light cruisers suddenly wailed, surprised by this sudden call. And as they turned around, they saw the German cruiser standing behind them.

"D-Don't scare us like that, _Purintsu_!" Tenryuu wailed, completely caught off-guard how she hadn't heard the German sneak up on them.

"Huh? But I don't think I was being that... A-Anyhow, do you want some orange juice? _Fräulein_ Able thought that you might be thirsty", Eugen asked as she lowered a tray of juice, trying her best to maintain her balance on the rocks as she did.

"Huh...? Ah, _doumo_..." Tenryuu said as she took a plastic cup of juice, followed by Sendai. The two slowly began to drink away the slightly bitter substance, but since the two hadn't really drank something like this before, both of them thought it was supposed to taste like that and just kept quiet. "...Hey, _Purintsu._.."

"Hm? Yes?"

"Is it... Is it true that... The war is really over? Is it true that we really sank, like really long time ago?"

Even though she remembered how these light cruisers were briefed about the subject a few days earlier, somehow Eugen knew that this purple-haired cruiser wasn't asking this because she had forgotten about it. And even though she had no idea why, Eugen knew that the answer would be really, really important to this girl, even if it just were to be a single word.

"...Yes."

Eugen could hear the eyepatched girl take a deep breath before continuing.

"Will I... Will I be able to see any of the _chib_... my comrades ever again?"

"...As far as I can tell, it seems possible."

"And those weird tentacles... How do they fit in? That briefing guy seemed to be quite interested in them."

"Uum, I'm still not quite sure, but those things have something to do with the reason why we're all here like this. Also, the one who's using them seems to be responsible for those... 'Attacks' as well, the ones that were shown during the following news. And lastly... Chief believes that whoever is behind all this... may have captured all of our _kamerad_ , and even our enemies, and is using them like mindless puppets to attack all those cities... And we're the only ones like this, and the only ones who could bring everyone else back to normal..."

A moment silence fell among these three ship girls. This one was the longest by far as the light cruisers quietly sipped down their cups of juice...

And after Tenryuu had finally finished her drink, she slowly stood up.

" _Fufu_..." Tenryuu suddenly chuckled. "So _this_ is what thinking feels like? Man, having those voices telling me what to do was so much easier."

"Huh?" the other two sounded.

"And here I thought that this all would just go right over my head, but isn't this just clear as day...? We could bring everyone else back to normal, you say? No, we _will_ bring everyone else back to normal! _Nihon-jin_ , Americans, we'll bring _everyone_ back to normal, dammit!"

"(Uwaaah... S-She's really mad about this for some reason)", Eugen thought.

" _Fufufu_ , I've made up my mind, I'm sure as hell not going to let that thing have its way! Using our friends _and_ foes as 'mindless puppets'? If that freak is so willing to ignore the roles we _all_ had during the war, then so will I! Screw the war, screw the _Kaigun_ , this isn't about us expanding our horizons anymore! I don't care what that thing is, or what it wants... But once the dust has settled", Tenryuu brought her hand with the empty plastic cup in front of her, and swiftly squeezed it flat, "we'll be the ones standing tall!"

"...Heh, I might not go as far as to ridicule our _Kaigun_ ", Sendai said, as she slowly stood up as well, "but I agree with your notion: this _isn't_ about us expanding our horizons anymore. If that thing is so eager to get us back in action after so long, then I would be happy to oblige. And if that thing thing has really trapped rest of our _Kaigun_ out there, then that alone is enough for me to track them down."

"Huh, how come?" Eugen asked.

"...My class had three ships, but I never had the chance to meet the other two back then. The only thing I actually knew about them back then were their names, but Baker- _san_ was kind enough to tell me more about them the other day. So, this might be a bit selfish, but now that I've been given another chance like this, you can be sure that I will _not_ waste this opportunity by going down before meeting them! I don't care how long it will take, but I swear that I'll find them by the end of this."

Eugen couldn't help but stare at the two light cruisers' renewed enthusiasm with bewilderment as the earlier gloominess had been completely pushed aside by this new-found determination.

" _Fufuu_ , but do you know what the best part is?" Tenryuu asked with a huge grin on her face. "Once we've kicked the crap out of that thing, we can have a rematch with the Americans afterwards!"

The German's admiration dropped faster than the empty juice tray slipped out of her hands.

"...Uuhm, okay, no, that's something that you might have to do alone there", Sendai said, not letting her determination get the best of her as badly.

" _He_? Why?!"

"Huh, 'why'...? Well, uuh... You see-"

"W-What if the people living on all these islands don't want to take part in something like that?" Eugen joined in.

"Ah. Well... What if we promise that we wouldn't aim towards the islands?"

"...Uuh, no", the other two replied.

"What if we promise to use training ammo?"

"No."

"How about fisticuffs?"

"No... W-Wait, wha-?"

"How about speed racing?"

"Uuh, what are you-?"

"Even _jan-ken-pon_?"

"Are you actually still _mad_ that we lost?!"

* * *

"D-Did I accidentally mix something in that juice?" Able mumbled leaning on the railing outside the cabin as she and Sakawa had just watched the whole scene that the eyepatched girl had just made. "But still, bringing everyone back... Well, who knows how that will actually work out, but I don't think that's a bad goal to start with."

"Uum, Able- _san_ ", Sakawa said meekly. "Is there a chance that we'll meet my sisters as well? I never got to meet any of them either, so I wonder what they would think about me..."

"Well, if my Chief's assumption is right, we could basically meet _anyone_ from your navy, but it is possible that we might come across your sisters someday... Hehee, and when we do, you can show off the progress you've made, so that's one thing to keep in mind while you train from now on."

"S-Show off my...? _Hai_ , I'll do my best! _Onee-chans_ , I promise that I'll find you someday, so just hang in there!"

* * *

"Ah, there it comes!" Iowa shouted as a plane eventually came into view in the horizon. "It looks like everything's going fine with them."

"...Huh, well what do you know, there really is no sign of that thing anywhere", Nagato noted, as she looked all over the horizon around the island. "I would've at least expected a recon plane or sorts, but could it actually be _that_ inexperienced...?"

"Hehee, maybe it realized how strong we were, and just decided to give up on us."

"Hm, a nice little thought, but I highly doubt it... But remember, it could appear in moment's notice, we need to stay alert", Nagato said as she slid herself towards the island, and hopped on dry land when she was close enough. "Come on, let's go help them out."

"Okaaay!" Iowa replied chherfully as she was about to follow.

But as she was about to slide after Nagato, Iowa suddenly felt a strong, cold sensation climbing up her back, as if someone was watching her. Caught completely off-guard, a terrified look spread on Iowa's face as she quickly turned around to face the open sea again... But she didn't spot any likely source for that strange feeling.

"Hm? What is it, Iowa?"

"Ah, n-nothing. I thought I just.. Uuuhm, it's nothing", Iowa replied as she slid herself by the island's shore, hopped on dry land and began to follow Nagato.

"(W-What was that just now, was it just me?)", Iowa thought as she stopped again, taking another look towards the open sea. "(...No, it couldn't have, I definitely felt someone watching me just now...)"

"(...No, some _thing_.)"

* * *

...What is... A recon plane?

* * *

Chapter 6 Afterword: (2/9/2016)

And next up, the first enemy aircraft carrier appears! Who could it be?

Well, you just have to wait and see. Bye!

* * *

EDIT: (2/4/2017)

I re-wrote some major aspects of the story, most notably about how the supplies arrived to the Atoll.


	7. Chapter 7: The Recon Begins

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 7: The Recon Begins**

* * *

5th of June, 1942. The Battle of Midway.

"Heh... So this is how you want it, _Tamon-maru_...?" Hiryuu mumbled as her empty gaze faced towards the bridge and the commander within it, before dropping it back on the deck as the preparations to scuttle her were reaching their final stages. "You'd rather sink along with me, instead of leaving with the rest of the crew... Heh, you idiot, you should've just gone when you had the chance..."

Her deck was in flames, littered with dead bodies and partially collapsed by the bow. Despite surviving the air strike that took down Akagi, Kaga and Souryuu, the enemy forces were eventually able to track her down and finally bomb her deck in shambles. While still being able to move, her capabilities as an aircraft carrier had been thoroughly demolished, completely unabling her to serve her purpose any further. Thus, after her survivors were picked up on board, the destroyer Makigumo was slowly taking aim to launch her torpedoes on the aircraft carrier.

After a brief glance around the flaming deck, Hiryuu let out a lengthy sigh.

"Haaa... I'm sorry, Souryuu... It looks like I'll be joining you after all... Heh, how awful, to get away from that raid, only to end up following you without any chance to... Any chance to re... R-Redeem my-"

At this point, she couldn't hold it in, as her lifeless, empty eyes began to water up, and she fell down weeping on the deck.

"No... Not like this, no! I can't go down like this, I can't face Souryuu like this! I didn't get to do anything, I couldn't avenge neither of our Divisions! Once I'm gone, the _Kaigun_ might never be able to recover from this, there's just no one to replace us!"

But as she looked up towards Makigumo again, she noticed that the torpedoes had been already launched, leaving her only a handful of seconds before the impact. And during those few seconds, even though she knew that nothing could change the outcome at this point, she couldn't help but cry out the one thing that had been plaguing her mind throughout the long, agonizing night.

...

...

"I see, an aircraft carrier. So _this_ is how those 'recon planes' are used."

* * *

Baker's radio began to let out some noise, prompting him to pick it up and answer.

"Yes? Baker here."

" _Ah,_ Herr _Baker, our supplies are about to arrive. We just spotted the convoy approaching in the distance._ "

"Ah, good. Does everything seem okay?"

" _Yes,_ Fräulein _Iowa and_ Fräulein _Nagato are leading them as planned._ "

"Alright, stand by and prepare to unload the supplies."

Baker put down the radio and was about to turn his attention back to his laptop, when.. _._

 _GROOOWL!_

" _Pya_? What was that?"

Baker couldn't help but chuckle a bit, before turning his attention to Sakawa.

"Well, Sakawa, I believe that is the sound of a lunchtime, or more specifically-"

 _GROOOOOWL!_

It was then that Baker realized the sound wasn't coming from the ship girl.

"Why are you making such a sound, Baker- _san_?"

"Uuhm, i-it happens", Baker replied being slightly embarrassed, but still quite amused. "...Hey, Able, can you go prepare some sandwi... No, you know what, do whatever you want with the remaining stock, we're just about to get refilled so we need to get more space for the new food supplies."

A wide grin had begun to spread on Able's face as Baker had said "do whatever you want".

"Ooohohohohohoo, this is gonna be good", Able chuckled as she had stood up and was taking steps towards the door. But as she had opened the door, something occurred to her as she just stood there for a while. "...You know, if we really want to get rid of the old supplies before the new ones roll in, I think an extra pair of hands wouldn't hurt one bit."

...But as her words didn't seem to trigger the expected response, Able just decided to go straight to the point.

"Hey, Sakawa", Able snapped her fingers.

" _Pyo_? What?"

"Come and give me a hand, we have a lot of things to cook."

"Oh, okay, I'll come and give you a... hand?" Sakawa said as she stood up, but as she realized what Able had just asked her to do, her face slowly shifted from indifference to realization, and then from that to overflowing happiness. " _H-Hai_ , gladly!"

"Good! Now, to the galley we go, hoi!"

" _Pyuuun_!" Sakawa chimed in, slamming the door behind her.

"...Huh. I didn't know that her mood would recover _this_ much", Baker noted to himself with a mixed expression of both delight and surprise as he finally got back to his laptop.

* * *

"Hiya, we're back", Iowa greeted as she and Nagato hopped on the deck, and the supply boats began to dock themselves crudely next to the rocks.

"Ah", Eugen sounded as she turned her attention back to the convoy, after checking what the ruckus was about by the briefing cabin, " _willkommen zurück_."

"So, did anything happen here while we were gone?" Nagato asked, looking at the three. But before anyone had a chance to say anything else, Tenryuu stomped her way in front of the blondie.

However, instead of just standing there and glaring at her, Tenryuu's expression seemed to be more conflicted looking down at the blondie's feet, as if she wanted to say something and - by the looks of it - do something with her right hand.

"(Yes, that's it! You can do it, Tenryuu!)" Eugen and Sendai thought, while they watched Tenryuu attempting to apologize Iowa for her glaring and to shake the battleship's hand as claimed.

"...Uuh", Iowa sounded as the eyepatched girl wasn't really doing anything else beside that, "what are you doi-?"

" _J-Janken_!" Tenryuu suddenly declared, taking out her left hand as well, now having her right fist laying on her left palm as she looked up to the blondie "One match! Winner takes it all!"

Her fellow cruisers were now quite unamused, evident from their blank expressions.

Confused by this sudden declaration, Nagato eventually noticed the even more confused look on Iowa's face. She decided to fill in the fellow battleship.

"Uuh, you see, there's this game where you have these three hand gestures, that are like, uum..."

Nagato began to demonstrate with her right hand.

"This is for ' _guu_ ', this is for ' _choki_ ', and this is for-"

"Ooh, you mean rock-paper-scissors?" Iowa said as she recognized the gestures, turning her attention back to the eyepatched girl. "Why didn't you say so?"

"Uuuh, j-just fight me, I dare you!"

Bringing out her own fist, Iowa was preparing to face-off Tenryuu.

* * *

 _BOOM!_

A small fog tunnel appeared by the island of Enyu, catching the attention of nearby airport workers. And after a brief moment, the fog faded away revealing a brown-haired girl with a yellow-green outfit and a bow, making the startled workers run away from her line of sight. The girl's lifeless, glass-like eyes glanced over Bikini Island in the distance, showing off slight signs of irritation as she gazed over the horizon.

"The water... It is different. Just what did the tainted ones do after that, I cannot approach them any further like this... Hm, no matter."

The girl took out an arrow from the quiver on her back, and placed it on the bow. She pulled the bow's string as far as she could, and with a quick whish, the arrow took flight.

"They may have been out of my sight until now, but now I can follow their every single move", the girl mumbled as the arrow was engulfed by a light, and eventually separating into five bright orbs. And after a brief while, the light faded away, revealing five miniature planes, zooming towards the island ahead.

* * *

" _Yosshaaa_!" Tenryuu cried out, as she was holding out a fist while the blondie was holding out two fingers. She then turned her attention to Sendai and Eugen. "Look, look, I did it! I beat _kinpatsu_ single-handedly!"

" _Waaai_ , good for you..." Sendai replied with a bit of a half-assed tone. Eugen didn't even bother replying to this, burying her face on her hand out of shame for the girl instead.

Tenryuu then turned her attention back to Iowa, looking at her with a wide, smug grin on her face. But as she kept standing there with no one saying anything, Tenryuu's grin slowly began to fade away as she gradually realized something.

"...Huh. That wasn't as satisfying as I thought."

"Well", Iowa started, "we could do best out of five if that would make you feel-"

"O-Oh, no, I'm fine with this. I just... I didn't even mean to challenge you like this."

"Huh? Then what _did_ you mean to do...? Also, what's with the change of attitude all of a sudden?"

...A silence fell on the harbor as the eyepatched girl was now meekly wiggling her fingers, somehow unable to utter an answer.

"Uuh, hey", a voice from one of the supply boats suddenly called out, "are you going to help us with these supplies or what?"

"Ah, yes, sorry about that", Nagato said, clearing out her mind as she put on a more appropriate face. "Alright, the break is over! Let's get to work!"

"Y-Yeah", Iowa noted, gladly changing the subject, and turning towards the boats, "we did say that we would make our leave once we're done resupplying, so we should do this before the light runs o-"

Suddenly, Iowa noticed something in the horizon, dropping her carefree-ish demeanour to a more serious look.

"...Nagato, we've got company."

"Huh? What?!"

Nagato lifted her gaze and saw it as well: A small patch of miniature planes gliding just above the water's surface, approaching the island. But before the patch would've hit the supply ships now docked by the harbor, the planes tilted upward, just barely avoiding a crash as they zipped right past the harbor and the small ship, little bigger than a yacht.

Even though the flyover was brief, the Japanese ships seemed to notice one of the planes' features.

"Wait, were those...?" Sendai uttered with a slightly confused look on her face, as she looked above their ship to see whether she could get another glimpse of the planes. "Were those planes from our side?"

"Well, at least they were marked like ones... I think", Tenryuu added, being convinced that she caught a glimpse of a red circle embedded on the hulls of the planes. But after trying to catch a glimpse of the patch as well, something eventually occurred to her as she began to look around the dock and the surrounding area. "W-Wait, who the hell launched them? _Oi_ , _kinpatsu_ , did you two bring a carrier with you or what?"

But instead of asking the eyepatched girl to call her by her name or even expressing her further surprise that the girl was calling out to her so casually, Iowa turned her attention towards the direction where the planes - and incidentally their supply fleet - had just came from.

"...Nagato, do you know what those were?" Iowa asked.

"I can't say for sure, but with that kind of speed, I can tell exactly what their purpose is... Reconnaissance", Nagato said, trying to suppress her frustration as she had a pretty good hunch on what the timing of this sudden plane sighting implied. "Dammit, why didn't I just keep my mouth shut?"

"So that feeling wasn't just my imagination then, huh?" Iowa mumbled to herself.

"Hey, what are you two mumbling about?!" Tenryuu asked, with a bit frustrated look as her earlier question had been ignored. "Whose planes were those? Aren't they supposed to be on our side?"

"Uuuhm... That may not be that straightforward", Iowa said, unsure how to talk about this. And it was then that the patch of planes appeared again, now flying a bit higher above the island and seemingly starting to fly in a circular pattern.

"...From what I saw, I don't think those had any bombs or alike on board", Nagato claimed. "And if the reason they're here is what I think it is... Well, there is _always_ the possibility of a follow-up with bombers and whatnot, but I believe those would be the only planes we'll be seeing for now... Alright, everyone, grab a crate and take it on board!"

"Hey, are ya deaf or something?! Whose planes are those?!" Tenryuu asked again.

"We don't know!" Nagato finally replied as she took a crate in her grip, making Tenryuu flinch a bit by the reply's ferocity. "And that's why I'm going to take the brief moment in the arsenal to ask the _chibis_ to send our own recon plane to find that out!"

As the battleship clumsily made her way to their ship's stern to get on board, Tenryuu was left a bit dumbfounded by this sudden reaction. And before anyone could say anything else, the door to the briefing cabin opened.

"Hey, what was that just now?" Baker shouted out. "What do we need to find out with a recon plane?"

Instead of explaining the situation to him, Iowa decided to just point up in the sky. And so Baker did. And he saw them.

"...A-Are those ours?"

"Well, apparently it isn't that straightforward", Tenryuu noted, still a bit bewildered by Nagato, "whatever that means."

It took Baker a while to process the information.

"...Oh. Uum, are they armed?" Baker asked as he looked at Iowa.

"Not lethally from what we could see, no", Iowa replied.

"Do we know where they came from?"

"That's what we're planning to find out!" Nagato shouted out by the stern, over the sound of her heavy footsteps.

"Oh, right, figures..."

" _Naa_ , _kinpatsu_ , what _is_ all this about? Seriously, this is just getting really confusing", Tenryuu asked again.

"...First of all, it's Iowa. And second of all, hold out your hands, we need to get these supplies moving."

"No, wait, answer my questio-!" Tenryuu tried to persuade, before Iowa handed her a crate, effectively cutting her view from the blondie and making her breath heavier.

"And lastly, it'll be much easier to explain this once we know where those planes came from, so just grit your teeth for now, okay?"

With not much breath to spare for an argument, Tenryuu could only do as told as she began to make her way to their boat while gritting her teeth.

* * *

Few hours passed as the ship girls kept moving supplies on their boat one by one, much to the supply fleet's confusion as the boat remained floating relatively lightly despite all the weight that was being gathered on board. And all that time, the planes send out by the thing had just kept circling around above the island, with the possessed girl bathing in her smugness as she thought how smart it was for now being able to see what the tainted ones were doing.

But it was during this smugful bliss that a miniature seaplane flew slightly above the girl, taking pictures of her every few seconds, and eventually returning back towards the island and the small ship, little bigger than a yacht.

* * *

" _Yokkora shotto_!" Sendai uttered as she lifted the final crate of ammo on top of another, after which she began to swing her hands around to get rid of the numbness. "Whew, that was really starting to take its toll."

"Good work, everyone!" Nagato shouted out. "Now we only have the two ships and their food supplies left, we should take a break for now!"

And as if on a cue, the door to the arsenal opened, accompanied by a large, covered food tray carried by a huffing and puffing purple-haired girl. With the initial reaction being the thought of going and giving her a hand, everyone soon noticed that despite Sakawa's struggling expression, her posture was rather straight and the tray was quite well-balanced in her hands. And after a few more slow steps, she got herself next to a row of crates, placing the tray on top of them.

" _Pyuuu_ , that was really starting to take its toll", Sakawa noted as she was swinging her hands around to get rid of the numbness, receiving a couple of disgruntled stares from her fellow light cruisers. Though these glares went pretty much unnoticed as Sakawa turned her attention to everyone else with a confident smile on her face. " _Pyohon_ , thank you all for waiting! I will present to you... The Saka-Able Dream Buffet!"

She removed the cover, revealing plates filled with sandwiches of varying fillings and...

Well, that was pretty much it.

"...Uuhm, _this_ is all you two could come up with?" Baker asked, as he saw barely any variation to their diet of the last couple of weeks, aside from the wider filling variety.

" _Pya_ , how rude, you make it sound like we didn't put any effort! Look, we have a sandwich with _bei-kun_ , a sandwich with tuna, a sandwich with _bei-kun_ _and_ tuna, and, and then we have-"

"Wait, bacon and tu-? Which one of you came up with these?"

" _Pyo_? It was mostly Able- _san_ , I just did what she told me to do. Why?"

"Uuhm, well, how should I put this-"

" _Itadakimasu_!" Tenryuu suddenly claimed, as she grabbed a sandwich filled with tuna and bacon. "...Hm? What's this? This is pretty good!"

"...Nevermind then", Baker said with a bit of a bewildered look, as he grabbed a one that seemed to have plain old ham and cheese.

...And bacon, by the looks of it. It tasted pretty nice.

Few moments passed, and now everyone was enjoying their break, and eventually Able joined the lot with a smaller tray of beverages. And after few more moments had gone by...

"Hey, Nagato, could you come here for a bit?" Chief called out while peeking out from behind a wall of pipes, catching the battleship's attention. Stuffing the rest of her sandwich in her mouth and swallowing it with her drink in one go, Nagato joined the fairy behind the pipes, out of everyone else's sight.

"So, did you find the source?"

"Yes, our plane found the most likely candidate right next to the Enyu Island."

Chief took out a piece of paper from a file, handing it over to Nagato.

"She's definitely an aircraft carrier, but I hope you would be able to identify her."

Nagato hadn't even taken the paper in her hands, when her brief glance of the paper made her eyes widen out of bewilderment. She ended up snatching the paper from the fairy's hand.

"...I see, so now you're back as well."

"Hm? So you know her?"

"Yes. Her name is Hiryuu, she was part of our _Kidou Butai_ during the war."

"...I'm sorry, part of your what?"

"Huh? Aah, sorry, _Kidou Butai_ was what we called our core group of aircraft carriers. It included all of our best carriers at the time and, quite frankly", Nagato unwittingly let out a wistful sigh as a slight grin spread on her face, "they were the ones who led the way for our navy, with the conviction of expanding our horizons and taking on the overwhelming enemy forces."

"...You mean the US forces?"

"Ah. Y-Yes, naturally", Nagato finally realized her own grin, and composed herself by reminding herself about the current situation and the company. "Ahem, anyhow, they were basically our navy's backbone in terms of both morale and offense... And it was their downfall that forced us to gradually back off, and eventually lose the war..."

"I see... Wait, so, how many carriers did this _Kidou Butai_ have? Just out of curiosity."

"How many? Uum, it's been a while, but I think it included three of our divisions, with each of them having two carriers, so that would be six in-"

Suddenly, something occurred to Nagato, as her wistful eyes widened out of a fearful thought. She eventually focused back on the piece of paper again and after a brief while, her focus turned back on the Chief.

" _Hanchou_ , are you absolutely sure that she was the only carrier you could find out there?"

"Huh? Well, quite certain, we can see pretty far from above, and she was the only thing we could spot within that general radius."

"I see... Those green capsules, how many of them do we have at hand?"

"The capsules? Well, I have heard that some small group were experimenting with the few remaining materials we had and managed to produce one yesterday, but... What's wrong, Nagato? You're acting kind of strange."

"...When me and Iowa were out there, we discussed about how we found it odd that there hadn't been any reconnaissance efforts by that thing so far. And the moment we got back, a patch of recon planes appeared, just like that... Well, of course, it seems like that's all that thing has planned to do so far, so that isn't really a problem right now... However, if that thing were to learn about our _Kidou Butai_ , learn their tactics, _and_ to bring them all out at once... We could be easily wiped with a single wave..."

"Hmm, I see. That's actually quite a serious threat", Chief mumbled with a thoughtful, fearful look as well. "Come to think of it, none of the ship girls attacking the cities was an aircraft carrier, that thing really hasn't understood their value yet... So, what do you think we should do now with Hiryuu?"

"Heh, my plan is quite straightforward. Hiryuu was one of our best carriers back then, and even she alone could be a serious threat if ignored. Since that thing is still learning, it hasn't grasped any proper tactics for naval warfare, but that might not be the case for long. So no matter what we do next, we _must_ get Hiryuu on our side. If we miss this chance now, we might not get another one to attain another carrier this easily."

"I see... We have all of your riggings cleaned up and ready for reparations. How do you wish us to proceed? And perhaps you should let _them_ help you out too."

"Hm, 'them'?" Nagato asked, until she finally noticed that she hadn't been holding the paper in her hands for a while now. She first checked if she had dropped it, before turning around and seeing Sendai and Tenryuu behind her, with the twintailed girl holding the paper in her hands.

"So, I guess this must be what _Purintsu-san_ was talking about", Sendai stated, looking at the picture with a conflicted look on her face. "Hiryuu- _san_ has been brought back... Like a mindless puppet, right?"

Being a bit bewildered that she hadn't noticed that the paper had been snatched away from her, Nagato eventually but a bit more serious look as the two cruisers looked up to her.

"... _Hai_ , that is the case."

"Nagato... _s-san_ ", Tenryuu managed to say, bringing a bit of a surprised expression on Nagato's face as the eyepatched one finally addressed her in a more formal manner, "if there's anything we can do to help, please let us lend you our strength! I swore to myself... That I would do anything to bring back every single one of us, from all sides! Let us help to bring Hiryuu back to normal!"

"...Uum, w-what she said", Sendai added, not eager to say the same thing with the same amount of enthusiasm.

Nagato was taken aback by this sudden change of tone with the eyepatched girl, since she had still shown quite apparent signs of distrust with Iowa just few hours earlier. And as Nagato was thinking about her, the blondie popped up behind the corner.

"Ah, there you girls are, I was wondering where half of us went. So, did you find the source, Chief?"

But as soon as Iowa had popped into view behind the two light cruisers, a plan popped up in Nagato's mind. And the more she thought about this plan, the more she realized that this was the perfect plan to use for this particular occasion.

"Ah, yes, I just showed the pictures we took and Nagato managed to identify her as-"

" _Hanchou_ , prepare your workforce", Nagato interrupted, pointing at the light cruisers. "Tell them to repair these two's _rikkings_."

"Oh, okay, I'll go make the announc... Wait, only theirs? But, what about you?"

"...I'm not going with them... She will", Nagato proclaimed, pointing towards the blondie.

"...Eh?" Iowa sounded, pointing at herself as if to make certain that she got that right.

"EEEEEH?!" Tenryuu exclaimed, with her gaze bouncing between the two battleships. "W-Wait, hang on just a sec! I'm not going along with her, she'll just shoot me down the first chance she gets, or something!"

"Well, she probably wouldn't go _that_ far", Sendai added, "but how do you think that we could trust her just like that?!"

"Huh?! A-Am I really that untrustworthy...?" Iowa weeped behind them.

"...Hm, quite frankly, your fears _are_ well-justified", Nagato twisted the knife in the metaphorical wound.

"Oh, come on!"

"...But that is exactly why you must go with her", Nagato added. And before anyone could reply, she continued. "I don't know how, but it seems like your minds may have began to cope with the idea that we are teaming up with someone like Iowa on this journey... But your hearts are still filled with doubt and rage from when her side was our enemy during the war."

The two cruisers were a bit frustrated as they realized that - despite all their bravado - they couldn't really counter this claim after what they had just said.

"Tenryuu, you said that you're aiming to bring everyone back, right? Then prove it to me, go with the one who used to be against you, and bring Hiryuu back to normal!"

The two were in a bit of a frenzy, not sure what to think or say about this whole proposal. But suddenly, it was the blondie who decided to open her mouth to object the idea.

"Wait, Nagato, wait! I understand that we might have to fight together one day, but there's no need to rush it like this. Wouldn't it be better to work with the ones you trust for now, just to make sure that everything works out fine?"

Tenryuu and Sendai seemed to agree with the notion, but before they expressed that, Nagato interrupted.

"Our enemy is possessing one aircraft carrier that is keeping an eye on us by the Enyu Island. While likely equipped with more than just recon planes, that thing is too inexperienced to realize, or possibly even know how to use anything else. Chances are that there will be no resistance if you were to approach Hiryuu with one battleship and two light cruisers... So, tell me this", Nagato looked at the three with ferocity in her eyes, "if you cannot trust each other even under these overwhelming odds of success... When _would_ you trust each other?!"

The three girls were quite dumbfounded, unable to come with an argument to counter this, yet showing the obvious signs of being doubtful about this plan.

"...I see, you still have doubts about it. Well, how about this then: If it turns out that Iowa here would shoot you two down and sink you while you're out there..."

"Okay, seriously now, I'm _not_ planning to do anything like tha-"

"I will kill Baker and Able in return."

...For few moments, no one said a thing, as the meaning behind these words eventually struck on everyone else.

"W-W-Wait, hold on", Tenryuu uttered in disbelief, "you don't need to go _that_ far, those two have nothing to do with thi-"

But before the light cruiser could finish, Iowa soon walked up to the other battleship and grabbed Nagato by shirt with her burning with ferocity

"Don't you fuck with me, Nagato! You say you'd kill them, are you mad?! Don't you have any respect for them, none of us would be here if it wasn't for them! And seriously, why would I even _want_ to kill these two?! I wouldn't even _think_ about sinking my own comrades, not now, not _ever_!"

"...Then you would have nothing to worry about those humans' safety", Nagato replied, looking at the blondie calmly despite the current situation.

A while passed, no one else said anything, and Iowa eventually calmed down, loosened up her grip and let go of Nagato.

"I got it. If it's for building trust, I'll do it", Iowa finally said. "But... If you'll ever say something like that again... There will be more than just angry glares, got that?"

"Yeah, got it."

Iowa then began to walk back to the way she came from, with the Chief and the light cruisers still looking extremely dumbfounded. But after looking around a bit more, Nagato realized that every fairy visible around them had stopped working, and were now just staring at the Japanese battleship.

"...Hey", Nagato tapped on Chief's shoulder, making the fairy jolt, "prepare the _rikkings_."

"Oh, yes, of course... Ahem, okay everyone, get back to work, we'll be fixing the riggings on docks 2 and 3! Hey, you two, come with me, I need something from you."

"Ah, _hai_ ", Tenryuu and Sendai sounded, as they meekly walked past Nagato and after the fairy.

After the three had gone out of view, Nagato let out a sigh and turned around. And it was then that she realized that the other two ship girls and the scientists were standing behind her. And quite expectedly, both Baker and Able flinched out of confusion and fear as the battleship's gaze met theirs.

" _Fräulein_ Nagato..." Eugen uttered, also quite shocked about what she had just heard. But before Nagato managed to utter anything in return, Sakawa suddenly began to run towards her with teary eyes.

" _Nagato-saaaaan_!" the purple-haired girl yelled as she plunged herself on Nagato and wrapped her hands around the battleship. "H-How could you say something like that?! Baker- _san_ and Able- _san_ have done nothing wrong! Y-You can't kill them, you hear?!"

"...I'm sorry", Nagato eventually spoke out. "I needed to push Iowa out of her comfort zone, and that's the first thing I could come up with. I... I hope you could forgive me for that, you two..."

"Ah?" Able sounded. "Wait, so, that was...? You were...? We are...? Oh, thank God..."

"Well", Baker chimed in, "I agree that we should all learn to trust each other, but... Please don't say that ever again, my heart can't handle this kind of tension... A-Actually, I think I'll go sit down for a while, my chest is starting to feel really uncomfortable."

"Ah, I'll give you a hand, _Herr_ Baker."

"So, you won't really kill them?" Sakawa muttered as her eyes barely peeked out from beneath Nagato's chest, with her weeping gradually letting out.

"No, I won't... By the way, Sakawa... How do _you_ feel about Iowa? Do you think she's someone we could trust?"

The girl eventually let go of Nagato, wiped away her tears and looked up to the battleship.

"Uuuhm, I don't think she's a bad person, at least. She seems like a really nice person that just wants to get along with everyone. Or, well, at least she's been really nice to me, and I've been really nice to her. And, just now, she..."

"Yes, she...?"

"She called Sendai- _san_ and Tenryuu- _san_ comrades. She called two from _our_ side her comrades when she was angry with you. And, I kind of... I kind of feel like that she really meant that, that what she said came straight from her heart... Or, something like that..."

"Yes. And that's why I said what I said, I wanted to show those two what that girl was really about... However, that alone may not be enough to earn their trust, and whether or not Iowa will earn it out there today... We can only wait and see..."

* * *

Chapter 7 Afterword: (2/12/2016)

Well, that took a while.

So yeah, the game received yet another American ship since the previous chapter: another Operation Crossroads ship Saratoga. If I had started with this chapter later, I probably would've used her instead of Hiryuu, but no worries, I'll probably get her in later. But for now, let's just hope the next chapter won't take this long.

Cheers.


	8. Chapter 8: The Second Encounter

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 8: The Second Encounter**

* * *

"...I see. So _she's_ the one who was brought back", Iowa mumbled, reading through a crude compilation of papers, containing a wiki article of the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryuu.

After she agreed to help bringing another Japanese ship to their side, the first thing Iowa did was to ask some of the fairies to print out some information of this comrade in question. But as she had made her way to the indoor dock and sat down to read through the papers... What she had learned about her was not quite what she had anticipated.

"Come on now, it wasn't _that_ bad, Tenryuu- _san_ ", a voice suddenly echoed by the top of the stairs.

"That's not the point, that thing looked fricking terrifying! She should've said more than just to 'think about rainbows and unicorns'! And now that I think about it, what _is_ a unic-Oh..."

The eyepatched girl finally noticed the blondie down by the dock and the two just kept staring each other as the violet-haired girl walked down the remaining steps. And once standing in front of Iowa, the two just looked at each other for a while longer without saying a single word.

"...So", Tenryuu eventually broke the silence, "I guess this is happening, huh?"

"Yeah, looks like it", Iowa replied, not sure how she should behave right after that outburst in the arsenal. She sat up and put the papers on the chair, with the black-white picture of Hiryuu on the first page catching Tenryuu's attention.

"Hm, what's that? Checking out stuff about Hiryuu?"

"...Yes", Iowa replied with a surprisingly worrying tone.

"Huh, what's wrong?" Sendai asked.

"W-Well, I just... This Hiryuu was one of the ships from your side that... That carried out that first attack."

A bit unsure what she meant, Tenryuu snatched the papers from the chair, and scrolled through them until she came across a section about the carrier's service history. And about her first sortie.

"Hm, 'Pearl Harbor'? That sounds kind of famili... Ooh, right, _that_ attack."

"So, what about that?" Sendai asked after taking a glimpse of the paper as well.

"Well... When all that went down back then, I wasn't around yet, but... By the time I took part in that war, I had heard the stories about how your side came in and killed so many soldiers from our side without any warning. And now that I'm like this, I've been kind of expecting that I might meet those who were responsible for that on this trip, but... But now that it's happening already, I'm not sure how to face her. What should I say to her? What would she say to me? And I just... I just don't know how to feel about this now, being the one to bring her back..."

...

... **SLAP!**

"Ouch! H-Hey, what the hell was that fo-?!"

"Are you _shitting_ me right now?!" Tenryuu shouted out, glaring at Iowa with a now-dented roll of papers in her hand. "Are _you_ , the one who insisted to bring back Nagato first, seriously wondering how you would face someone from our side?!"

"W-Wait, how do you know I was the one to-?"

"Look, we won that battle, but lost the war, aren't you supposed to be vary of _all_ of us?! Any one of us would be pissed for that outcome alone!"

"Aah, w-well, that's just-"

"And what _is_ with your kindness?! Even when I kept glaring you down, you've just kept acting like there's nothing wrong with any of this!"

"But, if we all need to work together from now on, shouldn't we just try to move on and forget the grudges of our previous life?"

"Well if you don't have any problem with _me_ , then what's the problem with Hiryuu?!"

Since this had been something that Iowa had been pondering about all by herself, she was suddenly unable to find the words for all these feelings that had been quietly brewing in the back of her mind. But before Iowa could find any of those words, Sendai spoke up.

"Uum, I kind of fail to see why you would worry about meeting Hiryuu- _san_ either. If it really is about that raid we pulled off in _Shinjyuwan_ , shouldn't your mind be at ease already?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, Nagato- _san_ was the one who ordered and overlooked the whole thing, yet you've been getting along with her just fine."

"...Huh?"

"W-Wait, you seriously didn't know that?" Tenryuu said, looking as the blondie seemed to struggle with this bit of information. "...Hold on, what _do_ you know about that attack then?"

"Uum, aside from that it was your first attack and from what I just read from that article... N-Next to nothing... I didn't feel like I was ready to learn more yet", Iowa muttered.

As Tenryuu just looked at the blondie with an incredulous look on her face, she eventually realized something about this situation.

"No, wait, this actually makes it fair for all of us, doesn't it...?" Tenryuu voiced her realization. " _Fufu_ , I don't know about you, but I think that Nagato has just given you a pretty sneaky way to prove yourself."

"Hm?" Iowa sounded.

"I guess it's like she said. You may think of us as comrades already, but... I don't think this nagging doubt can be put out just like that."

Mentioning the comradeship made Iowa remember her earlier outburst again.

"Hmm, I think I see where you're getting at", Sendai mumbled, a bit frustrated that she can't give the blondie any words to refute Tenryuu's claims. "Putting our lives at Iowa's mercy... She coming to terms with her uncertainty... Heh, we coming to terms with _our_ uncertainty... If we can get out there, and come back with Hiryuu- _san_ by our side, we might just have a chance to become mutual comrades one day."

"...Yeah. You're right", Iowa finally said, standing up from her chair again. "If I can't handle this situation now, I might have to face something far worse further down the line... Nagato is right, just acting nice won't be enough, and any doubt between us now would just make it harder to build up the trust later on."

Iowa glanced at the two cruisers with a serious look on her face.

"Tenryuu, Sendai... I know we've never met before all of this. I know we barely know nothing about each other... But I promise you two. By the end of this day, we've gone out there, we've come back here... And we've brought your Hiryuu back to normal", Iowa brought her right fist forward. "Mark my words."

"... _Un_ ", Tenryuu nodded, bumping her own fist on the blondie's, "I'm counting on you, _Aioa_."

"Yeah", Sendai added, doing the same, "let's do our be... Wait, what did you just call her?"

"...Hm? What, that's her name, right? _Aioa_."

"...Uum, no, that's not how you say it. It's _Aiowa_."

" _He_? But, that's what I just said, _Aioa_."

"No, no, no, _Aiowa_."

"No, I'm telling you, I seriously just said that, _Aioa_."

"(Uuhm, w-what are these two talking about?)" Iowa thought to herself.

"No, Tenryuu- _san_ , repeat after me. It's _A-i-o-_ _ **wa**_."

"... _Aiyoa_?"

The battleship took a surprising blow to her metaphorical funny bone. It took the light cruisers handful of minutes to calm her down.

* * *

The sword was swung down. The steel bar was cut down with ease.

"Hmm, as I thought", Chief mumbled as she looked over Tenryuu's sword in her hands, "there's not a single sign of that fracture, and this might even be sharper than before."

"'Ey, Chief!" the communications fairy approached with a bag of files. "It seems like the riggings have been successfully repaired, so I'll be going down there to set up the communications on the projections."

"Ah, wait, no, I forgot to mention this."

"Hm, mention what?"

"Since they won't be travelling that far, we're planning to communicate with those two through Iowa for now. And we'll be sending out our plane to keep an eye on the action, though mainly to observe that... Thing's behavior."

"Oh, is that so? Well, I'll just get back to my booth to prepare myself for the operation then. Peace!"

Chief then approached the fairies that were chaining up the two cruisers' riggings for transport, and sheathed the sword back into its holster.

"I'll leave the rest to you", Chief noted the fairies as she began to make her way towards the main entrance. But after halfway there, the door opened and the rest of the ship girls walked in.

"Ah, _Hanchou_ ", Nagato said, "we just finished loading the food supplies on board"

"Huh, already? But I thought you said there were still two supply ships left."

"Yes, but we managed to cut some corners by taking _two_ crates at a time and leaving them on the deck."

Chief glanced past the three ship girls and noticed the piles of crates on the other side of the doorway.

"...Hold on, you mean under the _sun_? Just like that?!"

"Yes, I was hoping that your folks could carry them for the rest of the way. It would be best for all of us that I were to keep an eye on the operation rather than carrying supplies."

"That's... Actually a good point, now that I think about it. You _were_ basically leading the entire Japanese navy at one point, so you might have some valuable insight on these kind of things."

"E-Eeeh?!" Eugen suddenly sounded, looking at the brunette with astonishment. " _F-Fräulein_ Nagato, you've led a _Marine_ before?"

" _Pyaaaaa_..." Sakawa mumbled, apparently trying to express her amazement as well, but with little to no success. And it was then that Chief finally decided to address her slight confusion about the light cruiser.

"By the way, what's with her? Why are you carrying her like that, Eugen?"

"Hm? Aah, I think it was a bit too much for her to carry two crates at once", Eugen replied, adjusting her hands a bit so the purple-haired girl wouldn't slip out of her grip. "Actually, do you mind if I'll take her to that cabin already, _Herr_ Baker and _Fräulein_ Able are already up there making preparations."

"Yeah, you can go ahead", Nagato said, "I still have some things to discuss with _Hanchou_."

"Hm? Like what?" Chief asked as the German girl took her leave and walked out the door.

"...Just now, the people from the resort came by and said that they are willing to let us stay here for another night. It looks like there have been orders to evacuate islands all over the Pacific, and those folks were planning to ask us to escort them to Enyu so they could fly themselves out of here. However, since Hiryuu is now basically guarding the only airport on the atoll, they have no choice but to remain here until the situation has settled down."

"Hmm, I see. That certainly gives us more than enough time to get things in proper order before we take our leave... Alright, I'll let everyone know to shift their focus on this operation, we cannot underestimate that thing even if there's only one opponent. We have no idea how much it'll improve itself once we make contact."

"Hm, _yoroshiku tanomu_. I'll go join the others on the upper deck."

"Yeah, I'll join you lot later", Chief said as the riggings were finally chained up and dragged away towards the indoor dock.

* * *

Minutes passed, and the operation was slowly getting on its way as the three ship girls were finally arming themselves. The new shining riggings were admired, the ridiculousness of Tenryuu's sword was adored (by herself), and some ranting was had as this adoring was delaying their departure.

But little did they know that had they postponed their departure by an hour or even a half, the small ship, little bigger than a yacht, would've faced something rather peculiar and alarming. For both them and their enemy.

* * *

...No, this is not right. Something is wrong here. But what could it be?

I can see where they are, I can see what they are doing, and everything is as it should be... And yet, something is very wrong here. Am I missing something?

The girl began to look around herself, to see whether or not there was some threat approaching her that the thing hadn't noticed up until now.

...That didn't seem to be the case.

But as the thing was wondering what else there could've been to cause this strange sensation, it failed to notice something very odd about its vessel.

A sign of free will.

Slowly, but surely, the girl's head moved on its own towards her right, all the way until it couldn't move any further.

It took the thing a rather long time, but the slow, eventual realization struck quite harshly on this odd being.

Hm?! T-The vessel, when did I move its...? No, I must have done it without realizing it. I will just turn it bac-?!

...The thing couldn't move it.

No matter what it tried, it couldn't bring the head face forward.

W-What is this? What is this?! **What is this?!** W-Why is it resisting?! This aircraft carrier was supposed the be the most suitable vessel for me, why is it resisting me like th-?!

But after the thing had unwittingly been gazing through the girl's eyes for a while, something finally caught its attention. Something that had been staring right back at the thing all that time: The arrows hanging out from the quiver.

...Wait... I launched recon planes with one of these things... But this vessel has even _more_ of these things...

But some of these things are not recon planes... Then, what _are_ they?

But before the thing could go any further with this train of thought, the visuals from the recon planes by the island began to show some movement. The ship that had been housing the vessels was suddenly beginning to split in half by the front, with the crack slowly getting wider and wider.

At first, the thing thought that the ship was beginning to break down and that the vessels would sink along with it, but it remained floating despite the seemingly worsening condition. And eventually, figures of three of its vessels came into view as they popped out from this peculiar crack. And then it took note of the two light cruisers.

Wait, those two... Why are they with that tainted vessel? And how are they moving? I thought I lost my connection with them.

...And what are they doing?

While the battleship was steadily making its way towards the open sea, the two light cruisers seemed to have some trouble following it as they struggled to maintain their balance. Hoping that they would fall over and sink, the thing's hopes were quickly shattered as the battleship soon stopped, noticed the lack of progress with the two cruisers, slapped her hand on her face, - for whatever reason - and turned back to aid the two vessels. Once the battleship was in front of them, the two cruisers took a hold of the battleship's turrets, and began to advance towards the open sea.

After glancing over these vessels for a while longer, the thing eventually turned its attention back to its own vessel. And it seemed like the vessel was finally facing forward again.

To see the sight of an airborne arrow being consumed by light. While the vessel was standing with the bow forward and its other hand pulled back.

...Huh? When did I...? When did I move the vessel to do this?! ...No, I did not move it, I did not move it at all! What is this? What is this?! **What is this?!** Why is this vessel doing things that I am not doing?!

And while the thing was freaking out, the light from the arrow soon faded away, revealing five miniature torpedo bombers, zooming towards the island ahead.

* * *

"O-Okay, I think it's all coming back to me", Sendai noted as her posture was now much more stable after trying to move again without leaning on Iowa.

"Yeah, I think so too", Tenryuu joined in, barely showing any signs of her earlier staggering.

But before Iowa could even look back at the two to make sure of that notion, she quickly noticed a patch of small planes flying towards their general direction.

"And not a moment too soon. Heads up!"

* * *

After a short delay, the plane sent out by the rest of the crew had finally caught up with the advancing ship girls, and the video feed conveyed by the plane eventually stabilized to focus on the three.

But instead of keeping an eye on the big screen, Eugen eventually turned her attention away from this odd, seemingly real-time footage of the action to express herself from her 40's point of view.

"I have... _So_ many questions."

" _Pyaaa_..." Sakawa sounded from the bottom of the sofa.

But before Nagato could join in, the small patch of planes emerged from the horizon, rapidly approaching the ship girls.

"Huh? It sent out even more aircraft?" Nagato said, being a bit baffled as she wasn't expecting any contact until they were to reach Hiryuu. "...Hmm, I can barely see our symbol on them, but I can't make out what they are..."

"Able, zoom in", Baker said.

"Gotcha."

The video feed zoomed in, and eventually sharpened a bit.

The German girl was bewildered even further.

The purple-haired was still lying on the sofa.

But once again, the brunette managed to avoid joining in, as she recognized the incoming patch of aircraft.

" _Ha_! It's _Kyuu-nana-shiki Kankou_!"

"...Uum", Baker sounded "the Q-nana what no-?"

"I'm borrowing this!" Nagato claimed, as she snatched Baker's radio off the table.

* * *

" _Iowa, watch out!_ "

"Gaaah! Sheesh, Nagato, my ea-!"

" _They are torpedo bombers!_ "

"Huh, torpedo bombers? How can you te-?!" Iowa was about to ask, but as the planes kept getting closer and closer, she had to push all of her focus in front of the three. "Tch, I'll just have to take your word for it!"

Hearing the words torpedo and bomber made the light cruisers react accordingly as well, as they were now preparing for a volley of torpedoes to come their way. But suddenly...

* * *

W-What are they doing?! They are going straight toward those vessels! Avoid them! **Avoid them!**

* * *

"...Huh? Something's wrong", Sendai said, as the planes suddenly began to wobble, and eventually the patch split in two and aimed to fly past the ship girls. But just as the planes had separated from each other, the torpedoes were launched, ending up missing the three girls completely. And as the planes zipped past the girls, the light cruisers managed to get a good glimpse of the aircraft.

"T-Those _were_ torpedo bombers", Tenryuu noted, being confused by the behavior and a bit pissed that their preparations went to waste. "...How the hell did Nagato know that?"

Iowa then looked behind themselves to see the torpedo bombers as well as catching the glimpse of their own recon plane.

"Heh, it seems like she's keeping an eye on us through our own plane back there", Iowa said as she brought her eyes back forward.

"...How?" Tenryuu asked from her 40's point of view.

"Hm? Well, through the video camera, of course."

"How?" Tenryuu asked from her 40's point of view.

...And it was then that Iowa realized that the eyepatched girl was asking this from a 40's point of view.

"Uuum, it's... Kinda like how a radio works, but with visuals."

" _Ha_? You can do that to a film reel?"

"Well... I dunno, apparently yes", Iowa noted to herself, as she hadn't stopped to question any of those modern device aspects until now. But she quickly regained her focus, as their target was finally coming into view. "Enyu's right up ahead! Prepare yourselves!"

"But, how _should_ we prepare ourselves?" Sendai shouted out as she brought her hand forward, with the turrets on her glove turning towards the carrier. "Like Nagato- _san_ said, there's only one enemy, and we're supposed to bring her back as well."

"It may not be that easy, that thing might have some tricks up its sleeve to even the odds. Now we just have to see if it uses 'em!"

* * *

Good, the vessel is not resisting anymore. Okay, where are those tainted ones now?

...Wait, I can see them. I can see them through this vessel. This is good, now those recon planes can keep an eye on that ship, and I can keep an eye on those tainted ones through this vessel.

...Strange, I am feeling weird again, something is not right here... No, this feeling is different from what I had before. I wonder why, I can see those tainted vessels just clearly.

But as the thing kept gazing over the vessels that were approaching it, it gradually began to realize where the problem lied within this situation.

The vessels.

Were approaching.

It.

...H-Hang on. W-Wait, no, no, **no**! This is not how it is supposed to go, you are not supposed to approach this vessel! This is not good, I need to do something, I need to...!

...Huh... W-What _do_ I do?

The mind was completely blank. The thing was completely paralyzed. The plan was merely to observe, but that was no longer an option.

As it kept staring through the carrier's eyes, the thing desperately tried to gather its thoughts and plan its next move based on what it was seeing, but the sudden desperation made it almost impossible for the thing to rationally review any input from any of the carrier's senses. And eventually, as any later could've been too late, the thing completely threw away the attempts to think its way out of this, and began to grab words from its desperate observations to give it _any_ ideas to handle this situation.

...Light... Cruisers...

* * *

 _BOOM!_

Two small Fog Tunnels began to emerge in front of the carrier.

" _Ha_! That's just like in those newsclips!" Sendai exclaimed as she tensed up.

" _Oi_ , don't you dare cheat like that! Fight us one-on-one, dammit!" Tenryuu yelled out.

"Wait, _one_ -on...? Be careful, we don't know who will come out!" Iowa shouted.

"Heh", Tenryuu sounded, "whoever they are, they sure as hell won't stand a chance against-!"

And then the fog dispersed.

Cutting the eyepatched girl's speed in half in an instant. As well as Sendai's.

"...Hm?" Iowa sounded as she heard the engines stop behind her, making herself slow down as well. "Hey, what's wrong?! Tenryuu, Sendai?!"

"Ta... Tatsuta?" Tenryuu uttered, as her sister ship was now standing ahead of them. "H-How are you...?"

"T-That outfit!" Sendai shouted out as the other, bun braided girl was wearing the same outfit as her. "Is... Is she my...?!"

* * *

"...I wasn't expecting this", Nagato mumbled, watching as the light cruisers were falling behind. "I don't know if that thing intended this, but it looks like the morale of those two took some serious blow right now."

"Crap, we don't have time for this", Able wailed, zooming out the feed as the light cruisers almost left the view, "we can't have them zone out right now!"

"Tch, even though they could still win this with ease, facing your own allies, let alone from the same class... Dammit, I didn't expect this at all."

"Nagato, we need to do something!" Baker said. "Is there anything that Iowa could do to-?"

* * *

 **BOOM!**

The sound of gunfire snapped the two light cruisers out of their surprised states, looking up to see Iowa's turrets smoking, aimed towards their enemies.

"...Wait, wait, wait!" Tenryuu shouted out as she approached the battleship, her fears rising rapidly. "Don't tell me you just-!"

"It was just a warning shot, they're just fine", Iowa said. And as the two cruisers reached her, they soon noticed that the worst that had hit their enemies was the sudden shock.

"...One carrier, two light cruisers... And one inexperienced strategist", Iowa continued, grabbing the two cruisers' attention again. "This changes nothing, we still have an overwhelming chance to win this... However, as you know, we only have one capsule, so we can only bring one of them back to normal, but if everything goes well... We can just capture them and bring them _all_ along with us, whether they like it or not."

"Uum, can we really do that?" Sendai asked.

"I dunno, this is only my second time fighting this thing."

"...Heh, I'd say that's better than nothing!" Tenryuu shouted out, aiming her sword towards their enemies again. " _Aioa_ , we'll keep those two busy, you focus on Hiryuu!"

And with that, the eyepatched girl began her dash towards her sister ship, eventually followed by the twintailed girl after slapping her uncertainty away through her cheeks.

"So, what'll it be now?" Iowa mumbled with a grin as she began to follow the two cruisers, with her eyes set on the enemy carrier.

* * *

I don't know why they stopped, but it seems like I still have to face them.

But what do I do now? Those two vessels seemed to lose their will to fight for a moment, maybe I could make it happen again... But how?

But as the thing tried to think of a way to replicate this reaction, Hiryuu's right hand suddenly began to move on its own again. But this time, the thing noticed this before the hand could reach the quiver, and it managed to stop it.

Ah, it is doing this again! What is with this vessel, why does it keep trying to do things that I am not doing?! I do not have time for this!

"That's my line, you freak..."

...Huh? W-Where did that-?

"Look, I tried to show you the ropes, but if you really insist acting like a sitting duck, then do it with someone else!"

W-Wait, what are you doing?! No, stop it, I am the one in charge, you are meant to obey m-!

"Then stand back and let me show you how to get this done!"

* * *

Suddenly, the carrier slumped from its straight pose, with her head and hands now hanging low. And as suddenly, the expression on the otherwise lifeless light cruisers went from neutral to that of fear as they changed their attention from their incoming enemies towards the carrier.

"Huh, w-what just happened?" Sendai said, as the possessed light cruisers were now slowly backing away from the carrier.

"I don't know... But this is no time for them to look the other way! Prepare yourself, Tatsuta!"

The exclamation made the cruisers shift their focus back to the other way, and seeing how close their enemies were, the two cruisers split up and dashed past the carrier. Tenryuu and Sendai swiftly followed them, leaving Iowa approaching the slumped carrier.

"So, it's just you and me now, you tentacle freak!" Iowa shouted out as she slowed down a dozen of meters away from Hiryuu. "Sorry to tell you, but we'll be taking that aircraft carrier along with us, so you might as well give up while you have the chance."

...But the thing didn't say anything, and Hiryuu remained in her ungraceful state. But eventually, the carrier's right hand slowly began to rise, made its way towards the quiver, and slowly began to pull out an arrow.

"Oh come on, really?" Iowa said, with a slightly guilty tone. "You know you blew your chance yet you still want to try me? I'm sorry to tell you, but even if I get serious and attack her, we would have means to just heal her up straight away, so doing that is just a waste of ti-"

And just then, Iowa blinked her eyes, like she had done a few times already during this talk. But as her eyes were closed for that very brief time, Hiryuu pulled the arrow out, straightened up her posture, set up the bow in front of her, and pulled the arrow aiming straight towards the blondie.

"-me... Huh, wha-?!"

"I got you..." Hiryuu mumbled, now revealing her face that wasn't lifeless anymore, nor having her eyes look like glass... However, what Iowa was staring at wasn't someone who had turned back to normal either, as the carrier's eyes were now completely devoid of color, only consisting of two black circles on a white backdrop.

But before the blondie had any time to react, the carrier let go of the bow string, and the arrow took flight.

"Ah, shit! I need to-!" Iowa sounded, but before she could step the way, she could see as the arrow scrapped her shoulder, grabbing a few inches of flesh along with it. "Aaagh!"

The blondie slumped down, now holding her bloody shoulder as the arrow was soon consumed by light, and eventually revealing a new patch of planes that turned around as soon as they could. Iowa wasn't aware of this however, as her attention was caught by Hiryuu as she was launching another arrow.

"Guuh, I-I'm not falling for that again, you goddam-!"

" _Iowa, torpedo bombers coming from behind you!_ " Nagato's voice suddenly called out in Iowa's head, making the blondie turn her attention behind her, where the planes just dropped down their torpedoes.

"Oh, no you don't!" Iowa shouted out, as she jumped out of the way of the five, straight lined torpedoes. But as she landed on water again, staggering a bit as she tried to keep her balance, she followed the advancement of this failed volley... Only to see a bit more spread out volley of torpedoes dispatched by the planes that Hiryuu had launched while the blondie was distracted. "Ah, sh-shit! I can't dodge th-!"

 **BOOM!**

* * *

" _F-Fräulein_ Iowa!" Eugen shouted out, as a pillar of water raised from the spot where the blondie was standing. "Now she's like a sitting duck out there!"

"What the hell is going?!" Able stood up in fear and confusion. "That's nothing like how it went down with Sakawa at all!"

" _Pya_? W-What do you...? Mean by that...?"

"...No, this can't be it", Nagato said. "There's no way this could be the same thing that we've been seeing up until now!"

"W-Whatever is happening, it's really bad! For Iowa to be losing like this..." Baker said as the video feed showed how Hiryuu was launching another arrow, but this time she was aiming it upwards. "Huh, why would she aim it like that...?"

" _Ha_ , could it be...?!" Nagato said as the arrow took flight, and it was soon consumed by light. And as soon as the light had faded, the planes began to make their descent towards the smoking pillar where Iowa was standing earlier.

The brunette grabbed the radio.

"I-Iowa, Hiryuu just sent out dive bombers! You need to move out of the way or we might actually lose you!"

* * *

"(Dive bombers?)" Iowa thought to herself, as she certainly heard a sound of planes approaching among the smoke. "(Crap, I can't move at all, that volley crippled my right leg! But I can't stay here either, what the hell should I do?! Gaaah, think Iowa, think! You have decades of experience, think of something you dumb BB-6-!)"

 **BOOM!**

"...Huh?" Sendai sounded as the number of explosions had been pretty worrying for such a short amount of time. And as she finally turned her attention, she noticed the smoking pillar, with the carrier still standing. "Wha-? Are you for real?! Iowa- _san_!"

"Huh?!" Tenryuu sounded, turning her attention away from her own fight as well, and seeing the same thing. " _O-Oi_ , _kinpatsu_!"

And it was then, that the two possessed light cruisers saw their chance as they launched their torpedo volleys towards their distracted opponents. But unlucky for them, the two cruisers heard the splashes rather clearly, and managed to dodge them with relative ease.

" _Oi_ , don't you dare pulling this kind of shit, you bastard!" Tenryuu exclaimed at Tatsuta. The two possessed cruisers replied with frustrated gazes.

 **BOOM!**

"Gaaah!" Hiryuu suddenly shouted out, when the two volleys hit each other behind the carrier, sending her stumbling on the waves.

"Ah, no!" The two possessed girls exclaimed as they dashed their way past their perplexed opponents. "I can't lose that vessel!"

" _Itatata_..." Hiryuu mumbled as she was slowly getting up. "Look, if you want me to take care of you as well, then you can just say so, you frea..."

But suddenly, the carrier's demeanor began to dull, her eyes began to regain color, and her attempt to get back on her feet suddenly ended up with her falling back down on her knees.

" _A-Are_? I'm not... Feeling... So well..."

And eventually, she ended up falling down completely, now her body resting on top of the waves.

* * *

"...Huh? What just happened?" Baker said, as the carrier seemed to be completely out of count now, and the other possessed girls were now panicking over this a few meters away from her. "And why aren't those two going to her aid?"

"Hang on... Could it be?" Able said as she grabbed her mouse, and began to change some contrast settings on the video feed. While ship girls were quite confused about this, Able was quickly able to find what she was looking for. "Aha, I knew it! Look, those girls aren't entering this lighter area here, where Hiryuu is now laying."

"Hm?" Nagato sounded, realizing that this odd look was not because of that tentacle thing's powers. "Wait, that lighter side is the side where we are, and that darker side is... That thing's domain...? Is _this_ why we hadn't been seeing anything from that thing?"

" _H-Hey, can you hear me?_ " Iowa's voice suddenly came out from the radio.

"Ah, Iowa!" Nagato grabbed the radio. "You're okay?!"

" _Ugh, my ear... Yeah, I'm alive at least, I managed to blast myself away from the attack with my turrets... Heh, they sure have a knockback, these things._ "

"Listen, we don't know how, but Hiryuu is now out for the count. We only have the cruisers left!"

" _Heh, so she's still begging for mo-W-Wait,_ what _?! How?!_ "

"...I just said that we don't know."

" _Ah, you did..._ "

"Now, we need to plan how to handle the... Wait, what are those two doing?!"

* * *

" _Tsukamaeta_!" Sendai shouted out, as she grabbed the bun braided girl from behind.

" _Yosshaa!_ " Tenryuu joined in, grabbing her sister ship as well.

"Wha-?! Let go off me, you tainted vessels!" the two possessed girls said in unison.

"Uwaah... t-that's kind of creepy", Tenryuu noted to herself.

"Tenryuu- _san_ , you can't let that distract you!"

"I-I'm not letting go, you know... So, what now?"

"Huh? You looked like you had a plan."

"Wha-? No, _you_ looked like you had a plan!"

"I said. Let. Me. **Go!** "

Suddenly, the two possessed girls began to struggle even harder, and every time they swayed back and forth, it was getting gradually harder to keep them still.

"Ah, they need help!" Iowa said as she tried to get up, but only to fall back down again due to the pain in her leg.

" _Iowa, you still have the capsule?_ " Nagato said through the radio.

"Huh? Y-Yes, I do", Iowa said as she took it in her hand.

" _Pass it to them. If this goes on, we might not get a chance to catch either of them._ "

"But... I only have one, which one should I-?"

" _It doesn't matter, just throw it!_ "

"Huh? But, what about building our trus-?"

" _Quickly!_ "

"But-"

" _Iowa!_ "

"Ah, hell with it!" Iowa shouted as she prepared to throw. "Tenryuu! Sendai! Catch!"

And the capsule took flight, flying towards the general direction of the two cruisers.

"Huh? Iowa- _san_ , you're oka... W-Wait, hold on, that's too fas-!" Sendai exclaimed, before the capsule hit the forehead of the girl in her grip, with enough force to send both her and Sendai flying backwards along with the capsule. But during the brief time while they were still airborne, Sendai noticed the capsule flying just above her face. And as she remembered what this capsule was about, she quickly grabbed it in her hands, pressed the button and swung it down on the possessed girl's left shoulder as they fell back on the waves.

"Ow, that seemed like it hurt..." Tenryuu noted to herself. And accidentally letting her guard down as her sister ship quickly got out of her grip, ending up being restrained herself. " _Ugah_!"

"You cursed vessels...!" The thing snarled. "Why do you insist opposing me so much?! After all that work to get everything ready for my plans, you just go and jump on _their_ side...! But this is good, now that you are like this, I can take you back where you belong."

 _BOOM!_

A small Fog Tunnel appeared behind Tenryuu and her captor, eventually getting large enough that it could conceal both of them.

"W-Wait, what are you doing?!" Tenryuu shouted out, hearing the weird voice behind her. "Let go off me!"

"Ah, that's... Tenryuu- _san_!" Sendai exclaimed, as the last bit of foam had just sprayed out from the unconscious, bun braided girl lying on her. "Come on, move it! Get off me!"

"No, Tenryuu!" Iowa shouted as well, forcing herself up despite the pain in her right leg. But as she noticed that she could barely move with the rigging on her back, she simply detached her rigging, now limping as fast as she could towards Tenryuu. "Don't you dare take her away, dammit!"

" _K-Kinpatsu_...?" Tenryuu mumbled, a bit taken aback by the sight of an angry, huffing and puffing battleship with bloody right leg and a bleeding left shoulder. "No, stop it, you'll just get hurt if you try to take Tatsuta on like tha-!"

"I don't care! I'm not letting-Gaaah...! A-Any one of us be taken away like this!"

"No! No, stay away! We can't afford to lose you, _Aiowa_! I'm just a frickin' light cruiser, you could always replac-!"

"I said I don't care!"

W-What is this? Why are these vessels acting so strange now?! Anyhow, I better get these two vessels out of he-

"Hm?" Sendai sounded as she finally got up, but only to stand still as her attention was caught by an odd blue tint beneath her. "Huh, isn't that... The foamy stuff? Why is it glo-Aaah!"

A small shockwave let out a pop as the blue tint spread all around them and quickly dispersed.

* * *

"Ah, look!" Able noted, moving her mouse over the footage and circling the cursor above a certain area. "That darker area just disappeared!"

"...I see", Nagato mumbled, "this is what happened with Sakawa as well. So _that_ is how our 'safe zone' came to be."

" _Nee_ , what's this talk about me?" Sakawa asked, being a bit worried since this was the second time her name was dropped in a rather odd place.

"W-Well, we can explain that later", Baker replied, finally realizing that they really hadn't told her any details from their previous encounter. "...Wait, look! The Fog Tunnel disappeared as well! And look at the girl holding Tenryuu!"

* * *

"Huh?" Tenryuu sounded as her sister ship's grip suddenly loosened quite a bit. And eventually, Tenryuu managed to get herself out, and her captor fell backward on the spot where the Fog Tunnel had just been a moment ago. "T-That'is just like how Hiryuu went down..."

And as Tenryuu looked over the now-motionless body of her sister ship, one thing eventually occurred to her, as she looked around her to see all the ship girls littered all over the area.

"...Hang on. D-Did we do it? Did we win?!"

"Uuuhm..." Iowa sounded, looking around as well. "I... I think that was it."

But before Sendai could say anything similar, she began to hear grunting from the ship girl now laying behind her.

"Ah, is she snapping out of it? Did it work?" Sendai said, kneeling down in front of the girl and lifting her up to sit on her knees. "...Uum, hello?"

"...Ah!" the girl exclaimed as she jolted out of what seemed to be fear.

"Ah!" Sendai jolted out of surprise.

"Ah!" the girl pushed Sendai out of surprise.

"Ow!" Sendai fell over because she was pushed.

"...Huh, J-Jintsuu- _neechan_?!" the girl suddenly exclaimed, once she had calmed down a bit and looked at Sendai again. "B-But I thought you were...! Wait. No, you're not her... But..."

The girl looked down on her clothes, and back at Sendai and her clothes. They were the same.

"...Who are you?"

And it was then that Sendai finally realized what was happening right now. She was already halfway to her goal. She was meeting one of her sister ships, the ones she never got to meet during the Pacific War.

"Hehe", Sendai smirked a bit, "if you mistook me for Jintsuu, I guess that would make you Naka."

"Huh? Well, yeah, I-I am, but..." Naka mumbled, but then she began to ponder on the way this girl mentioned that she mistook her for someone else. Someone else... From her class? Naka knew this girl wasn't Jintsuu, she knew that she wasn't her, so the only other candidate from her class with only three ships would've been...

"Se... Sendai... _neechan_...?"

And it was then that Naka finally began to look around herself, realizing that this was nowhere near where she thought she had been just a few moments ago, realizing that she was surrounded by rather unfamiliar sight and individuals... Realizing that she was no longer just a huge chunk of metal.

"... _He_?"

"Well, this might be a bit hard to explain but... For starters", Sendai raised her hand, and put it on her little sister's head, "nice to meet you, Naka- _chan_."

* * *

Chapter 8 Afterword: (26/1/2017)

Okay, I really suck at making regular updates... :/

But I'm glad I finally got this out. :D

Aaand... Let's hope the next one won't take months to finish. ^^;

Cheers!


	9. Chapter 9: The Carrier Arrives

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 9: The Carrier Arrives**

* * *

5th of June, 1942. The Battle of Midway.

"Once I'm gone, the _Kaigun_ might never be able to recover from this, there's just no one to replace us!"

But as she looked up towards Makigumo again, she noticed that the torpedoes had been already launched, leaving her only a handful of seconds before the impact. And during those few seconds, even though she knew that nothing could change the outcome at this point, she couldn't help but cry out the one thing that had been plaguing her mind throughout the long, agonizing night.

* * *

"I don't wanna go!" Hiryuu suddenly shouted out, after the capsule had dispersed all of the foam from her body.

"Whoa!" Nagato sounded as she barely avoided being kicked by the spasming carrier, lying on floor in the indoor dock.

"... _A-Are_?" Hiryuu mumbled as she was gradually starting to calm down. And once her breathing had become much more stable, she just lied there for a while, slowly taking in the odd realization that she wasn't feeling any pain from the torpedo that had just hit her... In fact, she began to realize that she wasn't feeling any pain in general, as if all that damage she had received throughout the night had just gone like the wind. But just to make sure, she slowly began to run her hands all over her body, to see whether or not she really was in the state she thought she was in just a moment ago.

...She wasn't. Her state was the complete opposite of beyond repair.

"I... I'm fine? But..."

"Are you okay, Hiryuu?" Nagato asked, kneeling down next to the carrier.

"Huh, Nagato- _san_? W-What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to stand by in the bac-?! Ah, this is bad! We can't stay here, the enemy might still come back! We can't afford to lose both you and...! Me...?"

But as Hiryuu had stood up in frenzy and began to look around her to see where they should go, the sight around her was... Not quite what she had expected, to say the least.

"W-Wha...? Where... Are we?"

"Hiryuu", Nagato said, putting her hand on the carrier's shoulder, catching her attention, "you can calm down now, that battle at Midway is already over... Or rather, so is the whole war."

"Huh?! What are you talking about?! But I was just-!"

"Wait, what do you mean 'the whole war'?!" Naka asked as she walked up to the two after hearing Nagato's claim. "I know things aren't looking too good for Truk, but I never received any orders to surrender or such!"

"Hm, why would you bring up Truk?" Sendai walked up to them as well.

"Huh, why would I-?! The enemy has been bombing the anchorage all day, how is everyone acting so calm?!"

"Eh, when did _that_ happen?!"

"Wait, what?" Hiryuu said, turning her attention to the bun braided girl. "But that's one of our largest bases down in the south, isn't it? And how would you know it's under attack, we aren't anywhere near that place."

But as she had now caught the attention of who was supposed to be Hiryuu, Naka felt a bit uncomfortable as she brought up her another question.

"W-Well, that aside... Are you really Hiryuu- _san_? The one from _Kidou Butai_...? Didn't we _lose_ you in that operation in Midway?"

"Huh? But, we _are_ in Midway right now, right?"

"What? No we're not, we're in... Uum, where _are_ we right now, Nagato- _san_?"

" _Haa_... We're currently docked in Bikini Atoll", Nagato replied, being a bit sympathetic towards towards these two, utterly confused girls, "roughly one and a half thousand kilometers northeast of Truk."

"Wait, wait", Naka looked like she was starting to lose it, "one... and a half... thousand...? B-But I was just _there_! There's no way I could've traveled that distance just like that!"

"That's right!" Hiryuu joined in. "And how did _I_ get here? And what happened to Makigumo and Kazagumo?"

"...I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask you two to calm down and wait here. We'll explain this all later, but for now", Nagato walked to now-unconscious Iowa and kneeled down to grab her in her arms, "I have some other business to attend to."

" _He_?" Hiryuu sounded as she noticed that the bloodied girl in the brunette's arms. "Wait, Nagato- _san_. Isn't she an enemy?"

But Nagato seemed to be more focused on ascending the stairs without losing her balance to even take note of the question.

"Huh? N-Nagato-san? But, that's... She... But... That... _He_?"

"Hey, don't look at me, I'm even more confused", Naka said, still having hard time to comprehend the thought that she was now talking with a supposedly deceased comrade from her navy.

"Uum... I'm not sure how to put this, but..." Sendai said, looking a bit unsurely at the carrier. "I don't know when our enemy attacked Truk like Naka- _chan_ said, but... I know it didn't happen at the same time as our operation in Midway."

"Huh? How would you know that?" Hiryuu asked.

"Well... I visited that place quite a number of times afterwards. I surely would've noticed if it was bombed to the ground."

"...Wait, hold on, 'afterwards'? You mean _after_ our operation? But that doesn't make any sense, we just started the whole thing yesterday."

"Huh? Wait, _that_ doesn't make any sense", Naka chimed in. "It's been over one and a half years since then."

"Wait, what did you say?! But, I'm telling you, I was just there! I had been trying to avoid the enemy all night and I was just preparing myself to be scut-!" Hiryuu suddenly stopped when she recalled her hopeless state just a few moments ago, suddenly getting overwhelmed by the conflict of what she had assumed that would happen after the torpedo had hit her and what was actually happening after the torpedo had hit her. And when she realized that she didn't even know whether this was some kind of a purgatory before she would sink for good, she couldn't help but burst out again. "GAAAAAAAH! What _is_ going on right now?!"

"... _N-Neechan_ , what is this?" Naka whispered to Sendai with a confused look on her face. "I know for a fact that _Kidou Butai_ was disbanded after our loss back then, but... Why does it feel like she's not joking about it? Like, does she actually think that... She was just there?"

"Uuhm, I'm not entirely sure, but... Well, it's kind of complicated, but I don't think she's joking around. And most likely... Neither are you."

" _He_? What do you mean...? Did I say something funny?"

"No, I didn't mean in that sense..."

"Hey... Naka- _san_ , was it?" Hiryuu said, after she had finally managed to cool down her head enough. "So, if this is not the day I think it is... Then what day _is_ it now?"

"Huh? Well, uum, I think it is-"

"It is not 18th of February in 1944 either", Baker suddenly said, as he walked down the stairs, happening to scroll through a wiki article about Naka on his smartphone. "Were a... Bit more further into the future, to say the least."

"Oh, I see... And you are?"

"Baker Marsh. You can think of me as a... Wait, hang on", Baker finally noticed that the only ones on the dock were him, and the three ship girls. "Where's the third one? And now that I think about it, where's Tenryuu?"

"Ah, she couldn't wait until another one of those capsule things were made, so she snatched that girl away and went to the arsenal", Sendai said.

"Oh, I see... Well, I'll just do my thing with this tablet and move on. Stand still for a while, you two, I need to make sure of some things."

Looking at each other briefly, the two girls didn't really find any reason to refuse this request.

"Uuh, _h-hai_ ", the two girls sounded.

* * *

13th of March, 1944. The waters near Hachijou-jima, Japan.

" _Fufu_... So this is how it ends for me, huh? To be sunk by a submarine while merely minding my own business... _Ufufu_ , never thought we would both go down the same way, Tenryuu- _chan_."

Tatsuta looked towards the skies above. She didn't even need to look up, since she was now sitting by her portside basically lying on the wall as the other side of the ship was completely submerged at this point.

And after a few loud creaks, the ship twitched, and the light cruiser Tatsuta began to sink with her stern taking the first dip. With her face remaining basically the same, a slight trail of tears began to run down Tatsuta's cheeks as she looked towards the ever approaching blackness of the ocean's depths on her left.

"Tenryuu- _chan_... Just wait for me, I'll be finally joining you soon enough... Soon..." Tatsuta mumbled, as she slowly closed her eyes.

...

...

"Hey, you sure this is working?"

"(Huh?)"

And then she opened them up again.

"Oh, wait, nevermind, she just woke u-"

"Tenryuu- _cha_ -?!" Tatsuta exclaimed when she recognized the face in front of her, but as she jolted up from the table, she ended up bashing her head against Tenryuu's. "Ow!"

"Ow! ... _Guuuh_ , my face..." Tenryuu now wailed on the floor.

" _Oi_ , what happened, Tenryuu?!" Nagato's voice echoed from behind a corner and soon enough, the brunette ran to the scene. "...Aah, I see that we got all of you back now."

" _A-Ara_? Nagato- _san_?" Tatsuta mumbled as she slowly got up on the table, and eventually managed to climb down. And by doing that, she accidentally stepped on Tenryuu's foot.

"Ow! Watch it, Tatsuta!" Tenryuu wailed, now sitting up to hold her sore leg instead of her sore forehead. "Nnngh, that hit a nerve..."

And while Tenryuu was trying to ease the pain by breathing slowly and heavily, Tatsuta just kept standing and staring at her older sister with a confused face. And eventually, she knelt down to meet Tenryuu's eye level.

"Hm? What is it?" Tenryuu asked, after she noticed her little sister's gaze.

"...Tenryuu- _chan_? I-Is it really you?"

"Huh? Well, who would I be if not me?"

...A moment passed without either of them saying anything. Until Tatsuta eventually plunged herself onto her older sister, now holding Tenryuu in a tight hug.

"Huh? T-Tatsuta, what's wrong?"

"...Nothing, Tenryuu- _chan_. Not a thing is wrong..."

"Wait, are... Are you crying?"

"Maybe."

"Oh, I see... "

"..."

"...Uum, s-should I do anything, or-?"

"No, this is fine."

"I see..."

"(Hm, maybe I should just let them be for now)", Nagato thought to herself with a slight smile on her face as she turned around to go back and make sure that Iowa was getting herself healed properly. But after she had turned around, the blondie she had thought to have left in hands of the fairies was now peeking from behind the corner, with an even wider smile as she was gazing over the light cruisers' reunion.

"W-Wait, what are you-?!" Nagato whispered as she began to make her way towards the blondie with quite an angry look on her face. And once she reached her, Nagato pulled Iowa away from the view of the two light cruisers. "Iowa, you know you can't make light of your injuries! We need to get you healed as soon as possible!"

"Whoa, whoa, chill out there, Nagato. We're already done, see?"

It was then that Nagato realized that the blondie was in fact standing upright, not limping with her right leg.

"Wait, you... You're right. But I thought they were still doing research to accelerate that process."

"I know, right? Apparently a lot of them got together to do some insane trial-and-error experiments on that, and they got it figured out in a matter of minutes just now."

"Huh, I see... Wait, come to think of it, they've really stepped up their game today. I could've sworn that this place wasn't this tidy when we set off to escort the supplies, and they had somehow managed to clean up our _rikkingus_ as well... What's up with that?"

"Beats me."

"...Anyhow, it looks like the operation was a success, huh?"

But as Iowa was about to boast about their achievements, she finally recalled how this operation had started and how she even ended up taking part of it in the first place. And her change of attitude reflected on that as she was now glaring at the brunette.

"Hey, Nagato. What you said about Baker and Able back then... Were you serious?"

"...Well, who knows? Maybe I was, maybe I wasn-"

"Just tell me! I need to know if those two are truly safe with you around... I need to know that I can trust you."

...As she stood still for a while thinking about it, Nagato soon realized that keeping up this act could end up causing much more harm in the long run.

"I'm sorry. I only aimed to step on your nerves, I don't have any intentions to bring any harm on those two."

"And how do I know that you are not lying right no-?" Iowa was about ask, but was cut short as Nagato gave her a furious gaze.

"Like you said, those two are the reason we have this bizarre second chance. Do you really think I would be repaying this debt by killing them in cold blood?"

Even though the words alone wouldn't been able to convince her, Iowa was rather overwhelmed by this sudden ferocity.

"O-Oh yeah, come to think of it, you Japanese were pretty famous for your sense of pride back in the day. S-So if you say something like that, I guess you probably mean it, maybe..."

"...Sorry, I didn't mean it to come out like that, I'm not used to talking like this yet", Nagato said, surprisingly blushing a bit out of embarrassment. "So... Are we good?"

"Well, I'd say for now. But I think you should apologize to Tenryuu and Sendai two as well."

"Hmm, _sou dana_..."

And at that time, the two could hear the door to the arsenal open.

"Hey, Tenryuu!" Able shouted out as she came in. "Where you at, have you finished the things with that third one? Bro has already gathered the other two in the cab-Oh."

It was then that she came across the scene of reunion.

"Ah, crap, I-I didn't mean to disturb your-"

"No, no, no, it's okay", Tenryuu said, "we were just about done here, right, Tatsuta...? Uuhm, Tatsuta?"

"...Do I have to?" Tatsuta mumbled.

"W-Well", Able said, still a bit uncertain if it was truly okay to interrupt them, "we would like to get this over with as soon possible, so that would be appreciated."

"What she said", Tenryuu said, tapping on Tatsuta's back. "Come on now, there's some really important things you need to know here. I'll come with you if you want to."

"...Will you really?"

"Yeah, I will really", Tenryuu said, but as Tatsuta finally let go and the two were facing each other again... "Wait, hang on, you can't go meet others looking like that! Uuhm... Ah, here, use my tie."

And the girl did as told as she took the tip of the tie and began to wipe her tears on it...

And then she took the rest of the tie and sneezed on it.

 _PFFFFFFFT!_

"Whew, thank you, Tenryuu- _chan_. That sure took a lot off my shoulders."

"Uuuuuh... Y-You're welcome", Tenryuu said, beginning to take the tie off as soon as Tatsuta turned her attention to Able.

"So, I see something quite strange is afoot here", Tatsuta said as she was walking towards Able. But before she could reach her, the two battleships walked back into view, with the blondie catching the light cruiser's attention. "...Yes, something _really_ strange indeed."

"Uuuhm, yes, that's one way to put it", Able said. "So, I know you might have some questions, but I think my bro can kinda answer most of th-"

" _Ara~_ , aren't we getting a bit ahead ourselves here?" Tatsuta suddenly said, closing in on Able and putting her left index finger on the scientist's lips. "Aren't we going to introduce each other first? Calling someone 'the third one' or alike is kind of rude, you know~"

"Huh? Oh, I-I guess I _did_ call you that, but-"

"So allow me to introduce myself then. I'm Tatsuta, the second Tenryuu-class light cruiser from _Teikoku Kaigun_... And who would you be?"

Since the light cruiser's face was quite close, Able was getting a bit flustered.

"U-uuhm... M-My name is Able Marsh. I-I'm a scientist of sorts, and... Stuff..."

After hearing this answer, Tatsuta slowly moved her eyes towards the blondie.

...And after just staring each other in silence for a while, Iowa finally realized the cue.

"Ah, my name is Iowa, I'm an American battleship."

Tatsuta's eyes twitched a bit as the blondie mentioned 'American'.

"Oh, wait, that's not enough, isn't it?", Iowa mumbled.

"...I assume there is an explanation for this, Nagato- _san_."

"Yes, but I do have to ask for an open mind for that. It might sound... No, it _will_ sound confusing... _Haa_ , Tenryuu, Able, show her the way, me and Iowa will join you later."

"G-Got it", Able muttered, looking at the new light cruiser rather meekly.

"Okay, just follow me, Tatsuta", Tenryuu said as she walked up to the other two.

" _Ara_ , Tenryuu- _chan_ , where's your tie?"

"D-Don't mind about that, okay...?"

And soon enough, the three had walked out of the arsenal...

"So, why did we need to stay behind?" Iowa asked.

"...I was hoping that you would've done something about that already, but it seems like I have to tell you straight."

"Hm? Tell me what?"

"You are not going anywhere until you've changed out of those torn clothes."

"Eeeh, whatever are you talking about? Are you suggesting that my current attire is insuffic-"

"Clothes, now!"

"O-Okay..."

* * *

"1968!"

"No."

"1969!"

"No."

"1970!"

"No."

"...Ah, 1971!"

"Okay, look, Naka, we are really, _really_ far ahead into the future", Baker finally gave in as the bun braided girl had kept throwing numbers to guess the current year. "In fact, were not even in the 1900's anymore, we're already way past that."

"...Ha! You mean... it's the year 2411?!"

"No, no, not _that_ far into the future..." Baker mumbled as he buried his face in his hands.

"Uuh, Naka- _chan_ ", Sendai interrupted, "maybe we should just wait until everyone has gathered and he could explain it all properly, okay?"

"Oh, o-okay."

After giving a brief thankful nod to Sendai, Baker kept preparing his slides for the upcoming presentation.

"By the way", Naka continued, turning her attention to the other side of the table. Towards the glaring, purple-haired girl, "why have you been looking at me and Hiryuu- _san_ like that? Also, who are you?"

"...I'm Sakawa", Sakawa replied, still looking intently at the bun braided girl. "So, are you two feeling any... odd sensations?"

"Hm, odd? What kind of odd?"

"Well... A feeling like going ' _Pyuun!_ ' or going ' _Pyoon!_ ' or, or going ' _DOOON!_ ' kind of sensations."

...

"(What does that even _mean_?!)" Everyone else thought with their faces reflecting on their inner confusion, which in turn ended up confusing the purple-haired girl as well.

"Uuhm, Sakawa", Eugen eventually was the first one to speak out, "I know you might be vary of them, but I can assure you that these two are fine now. They don't have any those kind of... 'odd' sensations."

" _Pyo_ , how can you be so certain?"

"...There are reasons", Eugen muttered, looking at the clueless face that first introduced itself as something way more sinister.

"Don't worry, Sakawa, I'll explain those things now that you've seen what kind of a thing we'll be facing from now on", Baker noted.

" _Pya_?"

"And that goes for Tenryuu and you too, Sendai."

"Ah, I see..." Sendai noted.

But as he was about to return his gaze back on the laptop screen, Baker quickly noticed that Hiryuu was looking at him again. But once she noticed, she quickly moved her gaze towards the table as if trying to pretend that it was all in his head.

Again.

Baker finally decided to take the initiative.

"Is there something bothering you, Hiryuu?"

The aircraft carrier jolted a bit as she was called out, but she quickly regained her composure. And after a while of consideration, Hiryuu finally faced Baker again to speak out.

"Baker- _san_... Nagato- _san_ mentioned that... That the whole war... _Our_ war is over. Is it true?"

"Wait, she already...? Yes, it is true... And now that I know _you_ know, I probably should clear up some misunderstandings right off the-"

"We lost the war, didn't we?"

"...Huh? Well, yes. Did Nagato tell you that as well?"

"Heh, figures..."

"Wait, she _didn't_? Then how did you-?"

"Was it because our _Kaigun_... Couldn't find anyone to replace our divisions that were... That were lost in... Lost in Midway?"

...Not being _that_ familiar with the World War 2 history, Baker was suddenly unable to provide a definitive answer. But as he tried to make up for that fact by googling "midway ww2"...

"Yes..." Naka suddenly replied, with a bit of a wistful gaze.

" _O-Oi_ , Naka!" Sendai said, panicking a bit. "Don't say that, that's just rud-"

"But it's true, and you know it! Ever since that operation, everyone just... They just couldn't fight like before, you know? To lose the ones who led the way ever since we started this whole thing... There's just no way that someone else could ever take their place, you know?!"

"Aah, well, I agree that it would be really hard, but..."

"And now that I _know_ that our _Kaigun_ lost... Well, now that I think about it, the enemy had just kept pushing us back, to the point that they could actually reach and attack Truk like that... So, our _Kaigun_ losing by the end of it all doesn't really... sound that far-fetched, huh?"

While trying to prove her point, Naka eventually realized her rather depressing message as she was talking, evident from her tone as it slowly went from determined to sad as she expressed her conclusion. And that same melancholy quickly spread into the cabin's atmosphere, with the most affected one being the aircraft carrier as a sorrowful "I called it!" was now written all over her face.

But just when it seemed like it would take many more minutes before anyone would even dare to speak up again...

" _Ara_ ~, why is everyone crying over spilled milk now?" a mellow voice suddenly called out as the door opened.

" _O-Oi_ , Tatsuta, read the mood!" Tenryuu whispered behind her little sister. "You can't just barge in after a speech like tha-!"

"Eeeh, why not? It's not like this could get any worse, right?" Tatsuta continued with an unfazed expression as she walked in. "...So, apparently our _Kaigun_ didn't make the cut in the end. Well, it is sad, no doubt... But the odds weren't really in our favor in the first place, were they?"

" _Ha_?" Hiryuu's pride snapped her out of her melancholy to respond to these remarks. "Hold on! It's true that the enemy had more firepower than us, but we did make some good progress when we were around, right?"

The light cruiser did end up staring at the carrier in disbelief for a brief while before continuing.

"Well, you folks at _Kidou Butai_ _did_ get quite a number of things done during our first year of the war for sure... But that's kind of where your contribution pretty much ended, huh?"

"T-Tatsuta!" Tenryuu cried out again.

"Don't worry, Tenryuu- _chan_ , I _am_ going somewhere with this... But you see, isn't that all kind of irrelevant right now?"

"Huh?" Hiryuu and some other girls sounded.

" _Dai Tou-A Sensou_... We played with fire, and we lost... _Ufu_ , so why worry about what has already happened? We can't really change the outcome at this point, so thinking about what we could've done and what we did do might just be a waste of time."

"Wait, but", Naka said as she stood up, "what _are_ we supposed to do then? If we can't do anything to help our _Kaigun_ win the war anymore, what else are we supposed to do now?"

" _Ara_ ~, shouldn't we first hear why we are even here in the first place?"

"Ah", Naka sounded as she looked around herself, "t-that's true..."

" _Ufufu_ , even though I have no idea how we are here like this, I'm quite certain that this will be one interesting journey for all of us."

"Huh, why is that?" Hiryuu asked.

"...I don't know about you, but I wouldn't team up with an enemy just for the sake of convenience."

This made Naka and Hiryuu recall how Nagato carried the enemy girl out of the bay, also making them realize that they really do seem to have an enemy from their war on their side now.

"There, I think that's enough of my musings for now", Tatsuta said as she finally sat down, then facing towards Baker. "Now, if you please."

"Uuuhm, t-thank you... Miss Tatsuta", Baker mumbled as he was now putting the projector on. "Ahem... Okay, Iowa and Nagato pretty much know what I'm about tell you all, so I think we can get this started without them."

"Hm, Iowa? Is that the name of that enemy ship?" Naka asked.

"Ah, yes, it is... And, yes, she _is_ an American ship, but... There is a reason for her presence here, even if it may sound pretty ridiculous... So, let's get this started."

* * *

...Minutes passed. The group was briefed on the past. The group was briefed on the present. The group was joined by the battleships at some point... And then, the group was briefed about their two encounters thus far.

* * *

"...And that brings us here to this moment", Baker concluded, with the last slide showing the final frame from the video compilation that Baker had put together from the material taken during their Enyu operation. "Now, are there any questio...? I'm sorry, of course there are..."

"I... I did that?" Hiryuu mumbled, eventually looking at Iowa with a guilty and confused look on her face. "But... But I... Why can't I remember any of that?"

"I-I was used like that too?" Sakawa muttered with her face almost as pale as snow. "I was used to... Say all those scary things? Is that why I was kept on board?"

And Baker soon realized that everyone except the heavy cruiser and the battleships seemed to be overwhelmed by the same thoughts.

"Okay, just to be perfectly clear", Baker continued, "whatever was used to control all of you... is gone. The little guys had been keeping an eye on Sakawa over there for the last three days, and they've examined her number of times during this time."

" _Pya_? Come to think of it..."

"And now that they had the chance to compare their results to Tat... _M-Miss_ Tatsuta, we can assure you that this thing is no longer affecting any of you. Whatever you are thinking about now is all on you."

The ship girls almost let out a unified sigh, lighting up the mood a little bit.

"So, what happens now?" Sendai asked.

"...Uuhm, w-we're not quite sure yet, so... Well, I think we should give you all some time to think these things through first, so I guess you're free to do what you want for the rest of the day."

"...Huh?" most of the ship girls sounded.

"Uum, like... Like what?" Tenryuu asked.

"Well, I dunno, go explore the island, the boat, the arsenal, there's still some light left out there. Just don't go out to the sea, okay?"

Looking at each other with confused looks for a while, most of the girls slowly began to get up from their seats and walk towards the cabin door.

Most of them.

"Hm? What is it, Hiryuu?"

"W-Well, you seemed to be awfully knowledgeable about the war, so... I was kind of wondering if you could tell me a bit more about how it all went down in the end. I... Even if it might be a waste of time, I want to know how we lost... And whether I could've done anything to prevent it, had I survived back then."

"Uuh, I guess we can tell you, it's not like that information is classified or anything... If you'd like, you can check the bookshelf in the back there, I think a pretty good chunk of those cover the Pacific War to some degree."

"...You mean _Dai Tou-A Sensou_?"

"Ah, yes, you girls seemed to have your own name for that. But, yeah, be our guest."

" _Arigatou gozaimasu_ ", Hiryuu said with a bow, before she went to the bookshelf.

"...Why not just let her google that stuff?" Able whispered.

"Well, I want to write these observations down when they're still fresh in my mind", Baker whispered back as he disconnected his laptop from the projector.

"Ah, I see... So, you're going to see what everyone is doing as well, once you've written down everything from this briefing?"

"...Yes. I think we've made some good progress these last couple of days with more ship girls around, but I think this will be the best opportunity to observe them now that we're letting them do as they please."

"Hmm... Is this really necessary, though? Like, all of them seem to have taken this surprisingly well and I think they might get a wrong idea if they see these notes."

"Well, I was thinking about dropping this when we reached the atoll, but now that two third of these girls have experienced a pretty bad case of memory loss... I believe this is our best way to ascertain our assumptions, and maybe figure out why this has happened with the ones who were possessed."

"And maybe even to figure out what they could be, right? Like, where did their personality, their habits... Well, where did 'they' come from?"

"Yes, that too."

"...By the way, bro. I've been thinking."

"Hm, yes?"

"I know we've said this a couple of times now, but... Is psychologist really a 'kind of' scientist?"

"Oh, uuhm... Y-Yes, definitely..."

"..."

"...Okay, probably not."

"You know, I don't think they even know what that title means, so I have no idea why you've insisted to keep that as a secret."

"...'Scientist' has a nicer ring to it, you know?"

"A-Are you serious...? Well, let's just tell them when we have something worth showing to them. But for now, just focus on those notes, I'll be going ahead to see what the rest are doing."

"Hmm, okay. See you later, Able."

And a few moments later, Baker was left alone in the cabin with Hiryuu, who was now pulling out and collecting books about the Pacific War.

* * *

Chapter 9 Afterword: (5/2/2017)

Just between us, I think those two might also be amateur ghost hunters, but I'll see if I can fit that in later. :P

But yeah, now that I have this many characters already, the following chapter will focus a bit more on the character development. This might take a while, since these kind of texts have taken me the longest to make so far. ^^;

But yeah, until next time, cheers!


	10. Chapter 10: Calm After The Storm

**Kantai Collection ~ The Pacific Redemption**

Kantai Collection fanfiction by FinnOtaku

I don't own the game that is being used as the base of this work of fiction. Kantai Collection is owned by Kadokawa Games and DMM.

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Calm After The Storm**

* * *

Greetings, my name is Able Marsh. I'm a psychologist working at the FBI.

...No, that's not right. I'm an _intern_ psychologist working at the FBI.

...No, that's still missing the point. I'm an intern psychologist that is **supposed** to be working at the FBI this very moment.

But I am not.

And I'm pretty sure this cruising has nothing to do with our internship program at this point.

When me and my brother first began to work at our local field office, that Fog Tunnel incident in San Francisco was still fresh enough to be featured in headlines all over the country. While most of the papers were just listing out eyewitness accounts, there were some smaller articles wondering about what the fishermen had found that day, and whatever happened to it afterwards. And at that point, neither of us had any idea either, nor we really cared. So we didn't think much of it when we were told to help carry an oddly shaped package that arrived shortly after our enrollment.

...Heh, now that I think about it, it was probably this moment that set all the pieces in motion for this trip. I still don't know how I was the only one to notice, but when I saw that tightly wrapped mini boat for the first time, I saw something pretty... Odd. And the phrase that followed was the thing that started it all, and which almost killed all of my credibility as an aspiring psychologist...

"What the shit?!"

...Ah, wait, no, the one after this.

"What are these things?!"

Thank you.

But luckily, after some... Talking, the little guys gave us an SD card, and things got rather interesting after that... Like, seriously, no one knew what to make of that, everyone was just confused as hell. You should've been there, it was just so beautiful when people realized that I was actually telling the truth about "the weird small people". Had it been some other place, I would've definitely shared the crap out of the video I took back then.

...Ah. I-I meant _if_ I had done such a thing back then, cause that is obviously against the law and I could end up getting jail time for possessing such a footage. Ahahaha... Haa...

A-Ahem, anyhow! One thing led to another, then we were led to Iowa, then we were led to a boat, and then we were told to... Uum, leave the... country.

...And now, after some even odder turn of events, we are now beginning our last day on the Bikini Atoll.

* * *

"Oh, come on, they said that we could do whatever we want, right? Can't we just retrieve my rigging tomorro-?"

"No, we'll go get it _now_ ", Nagato said as she dragged Iowa out of the arsenal. "You heard _Hanchou_ , the people working at Enyu were generous enough to retrieve your _rikkingu_ for us. We have to repair all the damage from earlier either way and we should make every second count."

"B-But... But..."

" _Haa_... Okay, how about this then? Once we get this done and have your _rikkingu_ fixed, how about we do some sparring in that... Pool thing? I could use some training myself after so long."

...After staring at the brunette for a while, the blondie's face slowly lightened up and a wide smile spread on her face.

"Oh hell yes, you can count me in! ...Ah, but Nagato", a slight grin spread on Iowa's face.

"Hm? _N-Nanda_...?"

"Wouldn't it be kind of one-sided that only one of us has a functional rigging?"

"...Once we get this done and have _both_ of our _rikkingus_ fixed, _kono tonchiki_."

"Hm? What's that mean?"

"Nothing... Okay, let's get going, I'll tag along to make sure that we'll be ready tomorrow to escort the people out of here as intended", Nagato concluded as she descended the ladders currently leading to the island's harbour. And shortly after, the excited Iowa followed her.

...And after an even longer while, Able finally decided that she had been watching long enough and began to climb down the ladders leading to the front of the arsenal doorway.

"So, I guess we won't be seeing those two for a while", Able mumbled as she descended the ladders. And once she reached the end, she slowly walked her way towards the side of the ship with the sight of Enyu in the distance... And the two ship girls now sliding on the water's surface towards it.

...Iowa, American battleship, nameship of a class with the same name. The first ship girl we brought back, mostly because bro thought that "she is way more interesting". Honestly, we were quite surprised to see that we were actually able to bring a "soul" of a ship to life... Well, I guess that much would be obvious. But now that I've had time to let that fact sink in for a few weeks now, I think I've somewhat figured her out... S-Sort of.

She kind of gives out that big sister kind of vibe, you know? She's the kind of a girl who would sneak up on you and just hug you from behind without any warning. And without any sense of personal space... Well, not that it's a bad thing, who doesn't love a pair of... A-Ahem, anyhow, I guess having a ship girl as a cheerful blondie rather than a cold humanoid has made it easier for me to cope with this whole concept of... Well, ships being girls.

Oh, wait, that analogy makes sense in more than just that way! Like a big sister, she knows how to get angry when the time calls for it!

...Uum, that's all I really have on that, I just wanted to throw that out there... M-Moving on!

Nagato, Japanese battleship, nameship of a class with the same name. Being a Japanese ship and a one that was forced to meet her end like... _that_ , we had our fears that she might not be willing to help us. But surprisingly, she has been surprisingly cooperative. And friendly with the little guys. And _really_ friendly with us... Mostly. And she helped us quite a lot when we were trying to explain this situation to the resort's staff after our first encounter.

...Wait, hang on. She _does_ have all of her memories from these past decades, right? But she doesn't seem to be out of touch at all, and she has seemed to be pretty levelheaded so far... That just doesn't sound right. One would think that being alone for so long would... No, maybe I shouldn't worry too much about it.

Although, if she _is_ just putting up a charade and bottling up "unfitting" feelings behind it like Iowa did... Hmm, maybe I _should_ discuss about this with my bro later.

"Ah, Able- _san_ ", Sendai suddenly greeted as she approached the psychologist. "It seems like those two went to get that rigging we left back there."

"Hm? Oh, yeah, looks like it", Able noted. "...It's kind of odd, you know. I was expecting that it would sink like a rock when Iowa detached it, but it somehow remained floating even though it looked pretty busted. Hmm, how _do_ those things work, I wonder..."

"Yeah, that is quite a mystery..." Sendai agreed.

...

...

"Uuhm, do you, like, need something, Sendai?"

"...W-Well, to be honest, even though you said we could do anything, we kind of... We don't know what we... What we should... Like, do."

"Oh, I see... Wait, 'we'?"

"Hm? Well, I meant me and Naka- _cha_ -" Sendai said as she turned around, but didn't find her little sister standing behind her. " _Are_? Naka- _chan_?"

After walking back where she had came from - with Able unwittingly following her - she quickly spotted her little sister.

Facing a seagull standing on the railing.

The bun-braided girl had completely frozen as she was staring at the bird.

"...What are you doing, Naka?"

"Ah, _neecha_ -" Naka faced away from the bird, but the sudden motion startled the seagull and it flew away. "Ah, no, don't go... Now look what you did, you scared her away!"

"Eh, how was that my fault? You would've scared it away later anyhow."

As the now pouty-faced girl was making her way towards her big sister to give some piece of her mind, she quickly changed her expression when she noticed Able behind her.

"Ah, the scientist girl. Whatcha doing?"

"S-Scientist girl...? Well, I just heard that you two don't seem to find anything to do, right?"

"Hmm, well... _Neechan_ did show me the quarters back there, but it looks like she hadn't really thought of anything beside that. Also... I'm still trying to take this all in, being like this and... Having something like _that_ against us."

"W-Well, you're not the only one..." Able muttered as she let her gaze wander up in the sky...

"Ah!" Able suddenly sounded as the sight of the early evening sky triggered certain memories from earlier that day. "I just remembered! Sendai, remember those planes that circled above the island during your op?"

"Huh? The ones that popped up when the supplies arrived?"

"Yes, those. So, before that briefing we had, I heard some of the little guys complaining about how they were able to identify every aircraft except for the ones that kept their eyes on us here. And I also heard that after Hiryuu had collapsed, all of those recon planes lost control and they just crashed all over the place, including on the island. But from what I understood, none of those guys has had time to go and find them yet."

"...So, what about it?" Sendai asked.

"Well... If you really don't have anything to do, you might as well use your time to help them out. The little guys seemed to be pretty eager to check those planes out, if they were given the chance."

"Hmm... I dunno if that's really what I would like to do, but... If that's your order, I guess we have no choi-"

"Wait, no, no, no, it's not an order. I just, kind of, just wanted to throw it out there, you know..."

"Oh... So, who _would_ go and find them, then?"

"Huh? Well, no one, really. None of the little guys had actually said that they want to get their hands on them, but... I'd say finding those planes and bringing them here might just make their day even better. Just a hunch."

"...So, you think we would just go and do a task that no one has even asked anyone to do? Why would we waste our time like that? That doesn't really make sense."

"Huh? Really?" Naka suddenly said. "I think that makes perfect sense."

"Hm? How come?" Sendai asked.

"Well... I'm not actually sure, now that I think about it... But it _feels_ like it makes perfect sense."

"...How does that work?"

"Well, I think I know where she's getting at", Able added.

"W-Wait, seriously?" Sendai replied in confusion.

"Wait, really?" Naka noted in a slight surprise.

As Able found both of these reactions - or rather, quite a good chunk of the conversation - quite strange, she couldn't help but just stare at the two girls, now pondering whether or not the two had any idea as to what she was trying to imply. But as all of the three seemed to be on quite different pages on the matter, Able ended up asking a pretty bizarre, yet as bizarrely rational question.

"...Does either of you know what a 'favor' is?"

"Hm?" Sendai sounded. "What does food have to do with this?"

"No, _favor_ , not flavor."

The few following moments passed on with the two ship girls just looking at each other with confused looks on their faces, each of them checking whether or not the other has a slightest idea about this word.

"...Uum", Naka eventually broke the silence, "that kind of sounds familiar, but... Not really."

"(...Now that I think about it, they haven't really had much of a choice with these kind of things, had they? All they've done is do something that someone else has told them to do, so doing things out of their own will might still be quite an odd concept for them... Heh, this is just so strange, to think we would have to teach about these things to them. I guess our psychologist studies aren't going to be completely wasted on this trip, huh.)"

"Okay, I have to take it back", Able finally said, "I _will_ have to order you around a bit, so you two could understand what a favor is... Which _does_ kind of beat the purpose of a favor since doing one is more about doing things for others voluntarily... B-But we'll have to start from somewhere, right?"

"Uum, sure?" Sendai replied, sharing a confused look with her little sister again. "...So, we _will_ go look for those planes then?"

"Yes."

"Any specific places we should check out then?"

"Well, the little guys claimed that at least two of those planes landed somewhere around there", Able said as she vaguely pointed towards the area beyond the dock.

"...That's helpful", Sendai noted as that area consisted of quite a considerable amount of vegetation.

"Okay, the point is, you wouldn't need to explore the _whole_ island, just that... Small slice of it."

"So, I guess that settles it then", Naka said as her earlier confusion was being wiped out by a gradually widening, confident smile. And then she began to make her way towards the ladders leading down to the dock. "Come, _neechan_ , let's go make a flavor to those planes!"

"Actually, that's..." Able was about to say, until she stopped to think and realized how many errors there actually were, and how the bun-braided girl was already climbing down the ladders, overflowing with enthusiasm. "...Have a safe trip."

"Uuhm, see you later then, Able- _san_ ", Sendai said as she was about to follow her sister.

"Ah, if you can't find anything before the light runs out, just get back to the ship, okay?" Able added.

"Got it", Sendai replied as she began to walk towards the ladders as well.

...Sendai, Japanese light cruiser, nameship of a class with the same name. Even though she was basically pulled out from the Pacific War just before her demise and brought to the present day, she seems to have been one of the more responsible and adaptive ship girls so far. And Nagato seem to have noticed that, since the few tasks that the battleship has given out to other ship girls had been mostly passed onto Sendai. And somehow, she was even able to calm down Tenryuu, something that no one else had really managed to do up until that point.

Naka, Japanese light cruiser, nameship of a class with... Oh, wait, that's not right.

Uuhm... W-Well, she's in the same class as Sendai, I remember that much.

Anyway, I can't really say much about her at this point, since I've only just met her, but she doesn't really seem particularly disturbed about this whole situation, even after that briefing.

Or actually, now that I think about it... Well, this might be a bit rude to say about someone I've just met, but for some reason, I can't help but think of her as kind of a...

"Oh, look, it's that seagull aga-AH!"

 _THUD!_

"Ah, Naka- _chan_! You okay?"

" _Guu_... Y-Yeah, it wasn't that bad of a fall. That was clumsy of me..."

...Klutz.

* * *

("Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap!") Hiryuu thought to herself frantically as she was reading one of the books, reaching the end of a chapter describing the events that took place in Pearl Harbor. ("T-This book, how is it this accurate?! Did that man make a mistake, i-is it really okay for me to read this, is this really not classified at all?! Not only does this know what we did back then, but it also seems to know what _they_ did back then! And I'm not even anywhere near the halfway point of this book, just how much did I miss out?!")

Seeing the frantic demeanor of the ship girl by the bookshelf, Baker was a bit unsure as to whether or not he should say anything, and whether or not anything he would say would help this seemingly distressed ship girl. But in the end, his curiosity took the best of him.

"Uum, i-is there something wrong, Hiryuu?"

As he asked, the ship girl froze...

And after a while, the frantic carrier's gaze quickly locked onto Baker. The girl swiftly got up and ran her way to the man with the book in her hand.

"B-Baker- _san_! This can't be right, am I really allowed to read this?!"

"Huh? Well, I don't see why not, there _are_ a lot of books on this subject out there, an-"

"Was this made in secrecy?! Is this a product of high-level espionage?!"

"What? I-I don't _think_ so. Well, I don't know about the very earliest books, but-"

"You aren't committing a treason by sharing this with an enemy, are you?!"

"Okay, look, we told you. We _aren't_ enemies right now, nor is Japan and U.S. in general these da-"

"Wait... Am _I_ committing a treason by siding with the enemy?!"

"Oh, for the love of-Hiryuu! We are not enem... Could you please just calm down so we could talk this out?!"

"But we _are_ talking this out!" Hiryuu practically screamed as her voice was cracking up and her eyes were rolling out of confusion.

Unable to come up with any other words to calm the girl down, Baker instinctively resorted to a more physical approach, one he used to do with Able when the two were younger. He got up from his chair, walked up closer to the girl and firmly rolled up his arms around her.

Naturally, the girl was confused and caught off-guard by this act, but after a while, Baker could feel how Hiryuu slowly began to calm down as her breath became more and more stable.

"There, there... Just take a deep breath, and blow it all out, okay?"

And the girl did as told as she now took one deep breath, and eventually let out a long, wavering blow.

"Are you okay now?"

"... _Un_."

Baker then let go of the girl, to see that the earlier confusion and frenzy was now completely wiped out as Hiryuu was now trying to hide her embarrassment.

" _G-Gomennasai_ , I kinda lost my cool there for a moment..."

"Well, I can't really blame you for that, you aren't the only one confused about all of this."

"Okay... So, it really _is_ okay for me to read this?"

"Yes."

"I see", Hiryuu said as she stared at the book. "... _Nee_ , can I ask you something? When... When did the war end? How long did we manage to hold on in the end?"

"...You managed to hold on until 1954."

"Wait, _what_?! We lasted for an entire decade?! Just how much _did_ I miss out?"

"W-Wait, _decade_? That's not how long it went on, I thought it was just... Oh, wait, sorry, I got it wrong. I meant to say 1945."

"O-Oh", Hiryuu sounded as she checked the thickness of the book, and compared the bit that she had already read to the rest of it. "...Yeah, that sounds about right."

"...You know, you don't need to do this if you feel uncomfortable about it. I think you should take your time before you-"

"No, I _want_ to know what happened after I had gone. Or rather, I _must_ know because... I was part of the group that everyone was supposed to follow, the ones who were meant to expand our _Teikoku_ 's horizons... The very least I could do for everyone is to learn what they had to endure after our battle in Midway, and... And to understand why some might hold our _Butai_ responsible."

"...I see", Baker noted as he could tell that the earlier remarks from the two light cruisers were still bothering the girl. "W-Well, in any case, just so you know... From what I've read, you do seem pretty capable, so I think you shouldn't worry too much about feeling left out because of your past. I mean, even if someone _does_ say you did bad, they would need to _be_ here for them to say it, which means they would also be getting a second chance to do things right alongside us, and you could prove yourself to them that way. And... And maybe one day, we might be able to find your fellow carriers and regroup your... 'Kiddo Butt Eye', and then you could do things you couldn't do before... You know?"

...The look on Hiryuu's face implied that she wasn't entirely sure what she should say in return.

"Okay, look", Baker continued, "this is really, _really_ strange situation we're having here right now, I honestly don't know what I should say or how I should say it. I'm just... Trying to make you feel better, you know..."

"...Hehe, it's fine, this is pretty strange for me as well", Hiryuu chuckled a bit. "... _Arigatou_ , Baker- _san_."

"Uum... Y-You're welcome?" Baker replied. And now that she had calmed down enough, Hiryuu seemed to be ready to turn her attention back to the book, but then...

"Huh?"

"Hm? What is it, Hiryuu?"

"Did you... Did you hear something just now?"

"Huh? Hear what?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I thought I heard a really high-pitched squeal, or something."

"...Uum, I didn't really hear anything of sorts."

"Oh, I guess it was just me then... Well, I think I'll get back to this book."

"Ah, you can sit down or even lie down on the sofa if you want, you don't need to keep it all to yourself by the bookshelf."

"Huh, really? Well, if you say so. _Osewa ni narimasu_."

* * *

" _Pyuuun_..." Sakawa wailed as she looked over the bandaid now stuck on her left hand. "That was scary..."

"Y-You did good, Sakawa", Eugen said, trying to look as cheerful as possible. "The worst part is over, now they'll be able to fix your rigging and make it good as new."

"Okay... Wait, what happens when it needs to be fixed again? Does that mean I would have to go through that... Again?"

...As that question hadn't really occurred to Eugen before this, a slightly terrified face spread on the German girl's face, as she and the light cruiser now turned their attention towards Chief.

"Hm?" Chief sounded as she finally noticed the two's questioning gaze after taking out the small sample container from the extracting machine. "Ah, well... Theoretically we _should_ need another sample to conduct more repairs, but we'll need some more tests with that to be certain."

...The two kept staring at the Chief, trying to make her say "no".

"Hey, any further would be just pure speculation, I'm not gonna say yes or no until we've repaired Iowa's rigging", Chief noted, glaring a bit towards the two ship girls.

"...B-But, you just said it. Both yes and no", Eugen pointed out, with Sakawa nodding meekly in agreement...

Not knowing whether the heavy cruiser was being a smartass or actually serious, the fairy wasn't entirely sure how to respond to this remark as she just stared at the two with a rather blank expression.

"Ah, there you are, Chief!" Able suddenly shouted out as she noticed and approached the fairy. "Hey, what was that squeal just now? I could hear it all the way outsi-"

Able noticed the bandaid on the light cruiser's hand.

"Ooh, I get it."

"W-Was I really that loud...?" Sakawa mumbled, trying to come up with something to explain herself properly, based on the look on her blushed face.

...She eventually gave up and hid the look _and_ the face behind her hands.

"Anyhow", Chief noted as she dipped the sample into the bucket, "after your briefing up there, she came straight to us, asking us to repair her rigging ASAP. Which _was_ going to be our next course of action for the rest of the riggings, but I wasn't expecting anyone to volunteer just like that... Especially you, Sakawa."

" _Pya_ , 'especially'?" Sakawa said as she looked up to the fairy, with a bit of an insulted look on her face. But before her words reflected on that any further, her face turned rather uneasy as she recalled the briefing. "B-But, I had no idea something like that had happened to me before all of this, all I remember is... _that_ operation, and then finding myself here like this. I just... Thinking of going against you without me being aware of it... I don't want that, not after all you've done for me."

"...I see", Chief noted, feeling bad as she now looked at the light cruiser's terrified face. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, you have every reason to have your equipment fixed as soon as possible."

"T-Thank you... So, when will you be able to fix it?"

"Well, we'll have to check how much more materials this would need before it could be used, but if our calculations are correct, we should be done with this mixture in a matter of minutes."

After Chief had taken out small containers of fuel, ammo, steel and bauxite, she took a look inside the bucket with one of the tabloids to see how much was needed to complete this odd, green soup. But the device hadn't even managed to finish its operation, when the fairy noticed something peculiar, bringing a rather surprised look on her face.

"...Or in a matter of seconds, apparently."

Chief then took a pair of tongs and picked up a couple of bauxite ingots floating in the mixture. After that, she lifted the bucket onto a small cart and then began to push the thing towards the row of riggings...

"Wait, hang on", Sakawa eventually said, when it became blatantly apparent that no further materials would be added into the mix, "was that it? I-Is it done now?"

"Yes, our calculations were almost spot on this time. All we need to do now is to apply this on your rigging, and it'll be good as new."

...As it had been merely a handful of minutes since she had asked the fairies to fix her rigging, thinking it would take them hours, the light cruiser slowly began to realize that it was only a matter of another couple of minutes until she would be gazing upon, maybe even wearing her brand-new rigging. And until she would be able to do what she was meant to do back in the war.

"Hey, Sakawa", Able snapped her fingers, catching the spaced out cruiser's attention, "come on, you should see what happens next."

"Ah, _h-hai_ ", Sakawa replied as she still tried to cope with the thought in her blissful state, taking a few unsteady steps before catching up to Able.

"...Huh?" Chief's voice suddenly echoed up ahead. "Hey, hey, hey, hands off! That's really fragile right now, we're just about to fix that!"

" _Ara_ , is that so? My bad."

" _Pyo_? Isn't that..."

The purple-haired girl took a couple of swift steps to get a clear view of the rigging row, and sure enough, she spotted the mellow-voiced cruiser backing off from the row as Chief placed the bucket cart next to Sakawa's rusty, busted rigging.

"Alrighty then", Chief said as she made sure that the cart wasn't moving anymore. "Sakawa, this will take a few moments, so just sit tight until then!"

But before Sakawa had a chance to reply or to ask how to "sit tight", she quickly noticed that the violet-haired girl's gaze had locked onto her as Chief had addressed the purple-haired girl as the rigging's owner. And after a brief moment, Tatsuta began to walk towards the younger cruiser with an intrigued look on her face as she tried to wipe out the rusty dirt off her gloves.

"Uum, i-is there something wrong?" Sakawa asked, backing off slightly as the mellow-voiced girl kept approaching. But eventually, the two were standing right in front of each other.

"...Sakawa- _chan_ , is it?" Tatsuta finally said, deciding to ignore the dirt for now as she gazed upon the other girl's appearance. But before she said anything else, she briefly turned her attention back towards the rusty rigging, and then back to Sakawa. "Is that your rigging?"

" _Pya_? Uuh, y-yes, it is... Is there something wrong with it?"

"...Well, now that you mentioned it, I'd say it looks quite inoperable, don't you think?" Tatsuta teased.

" _Other_ than that", Sakawa retorted, relieving some of her uneasiness in the process.

" _Ufu_ , no, not really... I was merely admiring how refined it looked like, despite its current state. I don't think I saw anything like that in the war."

"Eh, 'r-refined'?" Sakawa blushed a bit.

"... _Ara_? Now that I think about, I don't think I saw _you_ in the war either... _Ufufu_ , now I got curious", Tatsuta said as she got even closer to the younger cruiser, making her blush even more. "Do you mind telling me a bit about yourself, Sakawa- _chan_?"

" _Pyaaa_ ~" Sakawa wailed at first as the two's noses were almost touching each other, before composing herself and meekly trying to push the violet-haired girl a bit further away. Even though there was barely any force behind it, Tatsuta understood the hint as she backed up a bit. "Uum, I-I honestly don't know how much there is to tell. I was just being there in the war, and... A-And some things happened, and then I found myself here."

" _Ara_ , no need to be so shy about it, everyone has _something_ to brag about. Come now, you can tell me, what did you do during the war? Maybe you took part in an operation that I know about."

But that was the moment when she realized that she might've stepped on a mine, as the other people around them were showing off panicking faces and hand gestures, and the purple-haired girl's look went quite sad.

"I... I didn't get to do anything. I came in too late, and there was nothing for me to do. All I really did was... Well, nothing."

"... _Gomenne_ ", Tatsuta eventually apologized, "that was careless of me."

"Ah, n-no, don't worry about it!" Sakawa suddenly snapped out of it. "You wouldn't have known, y-you just got here! And besides, even if things didn't turn out like I wanted back then, I can just properly prove myself now."

"...I see", Tatsuta mumbled, not quite convinced by this claim as her face remained thoughtful. But before any other words could be uttered, a flash of light consumed the arsenal, emanating from the purple-haired girl's rigging.

And after a while, the light vanished, and the rigging was shining as if it was good as new.

"... _Ha_? I-Is it done? Is it really, really done?!"

"Yes, it is done", Chief replied, tapping on one of the turrets, "and it's waiting for you to try it out."

The overjoyed Sakawa soon began to run towards her rigging, letting out a squeal as she did.

* * *

"Huh?"

"Hm? What is it, Hiryuu?"

"T-That's odd. I thought I heard it again."

"Heard what?"

"...Uum, never mind then."

* * *

But while everyone else in the vicinity had now gathered around to see Sakawa putting on her rigging for the first time, Tatsuta remained behind, now pondering about what Sakawa had just said.

"Ah, Tatsuta", Tenryuu suddenly popped out, swinging her cleaned tie in her hand as she approached her sister. "Whatcha doing, aren't you interested in that at all?"

"Hmm... I'm just wondering things, I guess", Tatsuta said as she grabbed Tenryuu's tie and began to wipe her dirty gloves on it.

"Really? What kind of thi-?" Tenryuu realized what her sister was doing. "Wait, _oi_! I just got that cleaned!"

"Hm?" Tatsuta sounded as she wondered what she meant... Though it didn't take long for her to figure out the answer by herself. "Ah, sorry, you didn't bring this for me then?"

"B-Bring that for-? That's not what ties are for, dammit!" Tenryuu said as she snatched the tie back and stuffed it in her pocket.

"..."

"...Hm, what is it? Something's really bothering you."

"That girl", Tatsuta said, nodding her head towards the rigging row and the people gathered there. "Is it true... That she didn't get to do _anything_ during the war?"

"Aah, you mean Sakawa? Well, I don't really know much about it, but I heard she joined us in 1944, and that all she really did was some 'target practice stuff', which was also how she met her end."

" _Ara_ , what does that mean?"

"I dunno, that's how Able put it. Maybe she got struck down during torpedo practice or some-Ah, she's coming this way."

And as Tatsuta turned her attention back towards the row, she saw the gleaming, purple-haired girl swiftly making her way towards the two with her rigging on.

"Tenryuu- _san_ , Tatsuta- _san_ , look!" Sakawa said, showing how the turrets were moving in their sockets. "Look how smoothly they turn! Now I can surely help you all out, right?!"

"... _Fufu_ , _oi_ , _oi_ , that's all it takes to get you excited like that?" Tenryuu teased as she approached the purple-haired girl. "You can't let something like this distract you out there, ya hear?"

" _Pya_ , that's rude! Of course I wouldn't let these distract me when I'm actually out there... P-Probably..."

At that point, triggered by that one word, a certain thought occurred to Tatsuta as she looked at the other two.

...And she decided to act upon that thought.

"Sakawa- _chan_ , how about this?" Tatsuta joined in. "To make sure that you _won't_ lose focus during the real deal, how about doing some target practice? I heard they have a target range by that strange pool."

" _Pya_? I... Kind of knew that already, and that's what I was already planning to d-"

"However, there would be a catch. Instead of just shooting them by yourself, how about having a contest while you're at it? You get to compete and you can ask for some tips if you have problems with your form."

"Uuhm, I _guess_ that sounds good.. But doesn't your rigging need fixing? I heard Chief talking something about that."

" _Ara_ , is that so...? Well, I wasn't really planning to compete with you in the first place, I think you would deserve someone with much more experience."

" _Pya_? Like who?"

"...Well, since Nagato- _san_ seem to have taken off somewhere", Tatsuta put her hand on her sister's shoulder, "I guess she will have to do."

" _Oi_."

" _Ufufu_ , just kidding, I know you have more than enough experience to show her the ropes, Ten-ryuu- _sen-pai_."

" _S-Senpai_?" Tenryuu muttered with a slightly confused look on her face.

" _S-Senpai_..." Sakawa mumbled with a slightly surprised look on her face.

" _Oi_ , Tatsuta", Tenryuu whispered as she grabbed her sister closer, "what the hell are you on about?! You should ask me before saying those kind of things!"

" _Araa_ , but she _is_ younger than us, so doesn't that make her our _kouhai_?"

"That's not the point, why have you been even acting this strange in the first pla-?!"

"T-Tenryuu- _san_ ", Sakawa suddenly interrupted, now with a different kind of gleam in her eyes.

"Hm? Y-Yes?"

"Would it... Would it be... Would it be okay to call you Tenryuu- _senpai_?! T-Tenryuu- _san_?!"

...At that moment, Tenryuu felt like she had just found something she had never even known to have wished for before.

"W-Well, if you really want to call me that, I-I guess it can't be helped then", Tenryuu chuckled as she had let go of her sister to go ruffle the hair of the younger cruiser. " _Y-Yosshaa_ , I'll show you how it's done! Sakawa, be sure to take notes, ya hear?!"

"Ah, _h-hai_ , Tenryuu- _senpai_!"

" _Oi_ , _chibis_ , bring my rigging down there to the pool, I have some targets to mow down and one newbie to train! Come now, Sakawa, let us advance! To the pool!"

" _Pyuuuuun_!" Sakawa sounded, as the two were now jogging towards the stairs leading down to the pool.

"Have fun, you two~" Tatsuta said as she waved her hand.

"(...A cruiser with barely any experience as a cruiser, and a fleet with barely any experience as a fleet. No matter how you look at it, this can't be good if our enemy is as dangerous as these people have made it sound like. We can't just sit around doing nothing, we need to work together and learn to use these forms as effectively as possible if we want to stand any chance in the long run... Tenryuu- _chan_ , try to teach her well, okay?)"

"Uum, excuse me", Eugen suddenly said after she had watched everything unfold in silence.

"Hm? What is it?" Tatsuta said.

"Well, I was just wondering... What's a _Schen_ Pie?"

"...Ah, you weren't from my _Kaigun_ , were you? Well, allow me to explain then, it's-"

" _Senpai_ is a Japanese term used to address those who are higher than you", Able suddenly interrupted. "Or something like that."

"Ooh, _ich verstehe_... Hm, what's wrong, _Fräulein_ Tatsuta?"

...After a while, Tatsuta eventually turned her gaze towards Able, and she swiftly walked her way up to the girl.

"Interrupting someone like that is pretty rude, you know?"

"Eeek, I-I'm sorry! I just don't get that many chances to show off my anime trivia like this!"

...The proclamation drew a few perplexed looks from the two ship girls.

"...Ah, anime is this... Well, kind of... Like, animation made in Japan, and it's kind of popular... In the west, a-and in Japan, of course."

" _Ara_ , is that so...? _Ufu_ , Able- _chan_ , wasn't it? Do you mind telling me a bit more about how _Nippon_ is doing these days? Just how did our _Teikoku_ fare after the war was over...?"

* * *

EDIT#1 (26/8/2018): Now every chapter from 1 until this one has been rewritten, which can be mostly seen by the addition of the "(thought segments)". And now that I'm up to speed with the story again, maybe I'll finally finish the next chapter. But until then, cheers!

* * *

Chapter 10 Afterword: (2/4/2017)

Yeah, the next few chapters will be taking place during this same night, and there will be even more character development. :)

And that's pretty much all I have to say... ^^;

Cheers!


End file.
